Don’t just push data – push an action
When Southwest Airlines tested new screens at Dallas Love Field airport recently, it took some of the stress out of waiting for a flight. We’re used to seeing screens in airport terminals, displaying a sea of information for passengers who look for the drop of data they need, but these new screens in Dallas not only show data, they suggest an action, getting at the core of why passengers are looking at the displays in the first place.
The screens visually display such things as how full a flight is — the No. 1 question in departure lounges — and give passengers suggestions of what to occupy themselves with before boarding; like whether or not there’s enough time to grab lunch. Information is color-coded with urgent items in yellow, bringing more attention to specific flights as the departure times near.
Southwest is not only dynamically pushing data; they are letting people know the best action to take. By contrast, standard flight information display boards that only provide departure times and gate numbers seem old-fashioned. The difference between the two approaches highlights a critical problem facing the business world today: Businesses have more and more data, but typically fail to use it effectively. Solving that problem will require businesses to take push messaging to the next level. And by doing so, they’ll be able to strike a better balance between push and pull-based content.
Right now, businesses rely too much on pull data; if you want to use data to produce positive outcomes, someone typically has had to pull it out of a spreadsheet repository. But as the amount of data grows, that task becomes exponentially harder. Instead, we should use software to analyze data, identify the most important metrics and then push that information to users in a visually appealing way. While some organizations are using screens to drive performance, most are still just providing raw data on those signs, leaving the analysis up to the person looking at the screen.
In our personal lives, we have grown to expect excellent visual displays of information. We have apps for everything, analyzing data about ourselves, our tastes, our needs, and the performance of our investments. I’m fascinated lately by my Apple Health app. This free software tracks my movement and exercise, my heartbeat, and even how often I wake during sleep every night.
