When designing reports and documents for display on the iPhone or iPad, it is important to keep factors such as screen size and performance in mind. To achieve this goal effectively, you must make certain decisions before you begin creating your report or document. The best practices described below are grouped into the following sections:
Because screen space is limited on the iPhone, content that could be displayed in a single dashboard in MicroStrategy Web needs to be divided among multiple documents when displayed on the iPhone. There are many ways to divide existing reports and documents as well as many ways a user could navigate between the resulting documents.
A useful exercise, before development starts, is diagramming the documents and links that will need to be created. This allows the developer to identify:
The order in which documents must be built. Links must be created after the document that they target has already been created.
Where duplicate functionality exists. If two documents display different data with the same formatting, it is often possible to create one document, duplicate it, and change the datasets to save development time. You can also define a document template to use to create multiple documents with the same formatting.
What datasets are needed. One dataset can supply data to multiple documents, which can speed up development and reduce cache sizes on the Intelligence Server.
When building a report or document for the iPhone or iPad, one factor to consider is the size of the device’s screen:
The iPad has a screen size of 1024x768 pixels, and 1024x704 pixels are available in which to display dashboard content. Creating a dashboard of exactly this size will allow all content to be displayed on one screen. If more data needs to be displayed than will fit on one screen, consider using panel stacks to arrange the data in a way that the user can navigate by swiping or using selectors.
Consider using a predesigned template when creating iPhone or iPad documents. iPhone and iPad templates allow you to start with a predefined structure when you create a new document, and are designed to take the size of the device screen into account. For more information on templates designed for the iPhone or iPad, see Creating a document for the iPhone or iPad using a template.
Consider creating dashboards with only the necessary attributes or metrics that need to be displayed to improve performance times when viewing a document on the iPhone or iPad. Reports with fewer metrics also require less scrolling, and are easier for users to read.
The following topics provide general best practices to follow when designing documents and dashboards:
When designing a report or document, consider making use of interactive features, such as the following:
Links: You can add a link to a text field or image in a document to let users perform common tasks when the link is selected on the iPhone or iPad, such as sending an email, or executing a related report or document. For more information on adding links to a report or document, see Opening iPhone or iPad applications in documents and Linking to documents and reports from an iPhone document.
Make sure that interactive objects and links in a document are not too small, or too close together for a user to select when rendered on the iPhone screen. In general, objects the user can click on should be at least 40 pixels wide and 40 pixels tall. For more information and suggestions to create links, see Linking to documents and reports from an iPhone document.
Widgets: A
widget
is a type of Report Services control that presents data in a visual and
interactive way. For example, you can insert a widget into a document
to let users view data in a line graph. Users can then change their view
of the data by selecting the time period over which the data is displayed.
For more information on widgets for the iPhone or iPad, see
About
iPhone widgets.
Note: If you add a widget to a document to be displayed on the
iPhone, only one widget can be displayed in a single document layout.
To display multiple widgets within the same document,
create
a separate layout for each widget.
Grouping data: You can choose to group large amounts of data into logical subsets. Users can then choose the subsets of the data that they want to view on the iPhone or iPad. For more information on grouping data, see About grouping and sorting data in a document.
Prompts: A prompt is a question that the system presents to a user when a report is executed. Data is displayed on the report depending on what answers the user provides. Consider creating prompts specifically designed for use on an iPhone or iPad. Some examples of the prompt types are listed below:
Slider, which allows users to answer the prompt by selecting a numeric value on a slider.
Stepper, which allows users to answer the prompt by using increment and decrement buttons.
Wheel, which allows users to answer the prompt by moving wheels to specify a value.
Geo Location, which allows users to filter results based on their current geographical location.
Barcode Reader, which allows users to answer the prompt by scanning a barcode.
Images: You can add dynamic images to a document. Dynamic images allow different images to be displayed depending on the data in the dataset. You can use attributes and metrics to determine the file name of the image. For example, a document is paged by Region. For each region, a map for that particular region must be displayed. This and other examples are presented in detail in the MicroStrategy Report Services Document Creation Guide.
Drilling: Enable drilling for users to be able to view information at multiple levels from within a single report. This allows users to get more information from one report without having to browse to, and run, other reports. For steps to enable drilling, see the Advanced Reporting Guide.
The following best practices list ways to enhance the readability of reports and documents displayed on the iPhone or iPad:
You can choose to optimize a document layout for display in an iPhone application. This prevents users from performing actions such as zooming in or out of the document, and allows you to better control the user’s interaction with the document.
When designing a grid:
Add padding around data cells to make the data more legible.
Use contrasting colors for the data and the background of the grid.
When using thresholds, consider using colors in conjunction with symbols. This can help users who have difficulty distinguishing colors understand the data.
When designing a graph:
When displaying graphs on the iPhone or iPad, you can display pop-up tooltips to provide additional information about data points in the graph. You must enable tooltips using the Properties dialog box before they can be displayed on the iPhone.
Maximize the graph's size by moving the legend below the graph. If your Y graph axis displays values in the thousands or millions, you can assign axis abbreviation to avoid clutter on the graph axis.
By default, when users view a graph in a portrait or landscape view by rotating the iPhone, the graph does not fill the entire screen. To make sure the graph fills the entire screen in both views, create a document with two layouts, one for each orientation, then add the graph and position it to fill the screen.
You can enable a panel stack to be displayed as an Information Window. When a user selects an item in a selector that targets the panel stack, an Information Window is displayed, providing additional information on the selector item. For more information on using panel stacks as Information Windows, see the MicroStrategy Mobile Design and Administration Guide.
The following suggestions can enhance the performance of reports or documents displayed on the iPhone or iPad:
Use Intelligent Cubes to provide historical or trend data on the iPhone or iPad. For more information on Intelligent Cubes, see Creating a report that accesses an Intelligent Cube.
Group data in a document to let users display subsets of data instead of prompts. Accessing a cached document or report with multiple pages is faster than changing prompt answers and resubmitting the job to the Intelligence Server.
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