Session 5 Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran1

2 Outline Principles of Spreadsheet Design Ease-of-use for Others Color

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran3 Add white space by increasing column width and row height. Indent to help the users understand subtotals. Consider not displaying the gridlines. Increasing Ease-of-use by Others

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran4 Avoid the “ransom note effect:” Use only a few different fonts: Ariel or Calibri, Times New Roman, New Courier Use the standard symbolic fonts: –Insert | Symbol | Font –Symbol: , β, μ, ρ,  Ψ, Π, Σ, Δ, Φ –Wingdings: ,, , , ,  –Webdings: , , , , ,  –Downloadable fonts can be useful for printing or presenting, but not for sharing with others; you cannot embed fonts in a workbook. Use different colors, borders, shading (and patterns), font sizes, formatting, alignment. –From the Home tab, launch the Font dialog box and  Superscript / Subscript Increasing Ease-of-use by Others

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran5

6 Document with cell comments and adjacent descriptive labels. –Center labels across columns, and over rows. Realign text. Don’t scream (USE ALL CAPITALS). Use graphical controls (e.g., sliders). Be cautious about letting column widths vary. (Carefully) use conditional formatting. Don’t make people guess where information might be located. Identify the “active area” of your spreadsheet. –Surround it with thick (embossed) borders. –Use highlighting shading (say, light yellow). –Shade the unused rows and columns light gray. –Select everything, shade light gray, and then unshade the active area. –Hide all of the unused rows and columns. Increasing Ease-of-use by Others

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran7 Remove extraneous/distracting elements. –Unused worksheets! –Gridlines row/column headers, formula bar: View | Show/Hide group. –Scroll bars, sheet tabs, etc.: File | Options | Advanced | “Display options for this workbook.” –View | Workbook Views | Full Screen is the most extreme. Save users from themselves. –Protect cells and worksheets from inadvertent change. –Use data validation prompts. –Low-tech: Insert If() functions nearby to display error messages when appropriate. –If(danger, "Warning!", "") Increasing Ease-of-use by Others

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran8 Emphasize the logical organization of information. Tie together related — but physically separated — cells. Increase information density in graphs. Draw attention to warnings or outliers. Add interest to a boring display. Make sure you have some reason for using color. Using Color

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran9 Recognize cultural associations for color. In the U.S., –Red = –Black = –Blue = –Yellow = –Green = For international cultural associations, check out To represent relative values, stick with some logical order. Color Guidelines

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran10 Take a screen shot that contains the color you’re looking for. Launch Microsoft Paint, and Paste (Ctrl – v) in the image. Use Tools | Color Picker, and click on the color you want. Finding a Primary Color That becomes Color 1; click on Edit colors and read off the RGB codes at the bottom right. Now enter these RGB codes into Hypergurl.

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran11 Custom Color Schemes

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran12 Don’t rely on it exclusively, but use it to reinforce information. –Most printing is still done in black and white. –9% of Caucasian males have some form of color blindness. o Color perception is associated with the X chromosome. o Red/Green is the most common. o Shades of brown and yellow are universally recognized. Avoid pairing extremes of color spectrum, or garish combinations: Low error rates: Color Concerns

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran13 Use it consistently throughout. –E.g., all error messages are in red; all comments are on a light yellow background; etc. Use it conservatively. –Maximum of 3 – 7 colors; strive for subtlety. –Avoid vibrant colors (especially for backgrounds). o Thin or small objects (e.g., lines) need to have brighter colors. –Consider inverse colors (e.g., white text on a dark background) for titles. Color Concerns

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran14 Take-aways As with traditional computer programming languages, there are style guides for building and maintaining spreadsheets. The appropriate levels of documentation, ease-of-use features, and error prevention features, will depend on who will be using the spreadsheet, and how frequently. Accountants have a well-defined style, which is appropriate for their B&W hard copies. Embed hyperlinks into large workbooks to facilitate navigation. Be consistent! –Within your spreadsheet. –With generally accepted conventions. –With your corporation’s style guidelines.

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran15 Take-aways Always identify parameters in their own labeled cells, never buried in an equation. Design your spreadsheet so that equations depend on values above and to their left. Eliminate circular references if at all possible. Use comments liberally to explain what you’re doing. (They can always be turned off.) Don’t be content with Excel’s default format; there’s a lot you can do to make it easier for others to understand your spreadsheet. Use color appropriately in order to reinforce connections and to clarify distinctions.

Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling -- Prof. Juran16 Consider the worksheet “Trouble”. Apply good design principles to improve its layout and readability. –“Graying Out” and/or hiding all but a small portion of the worksheet. –Adding embossed borders (if you want). –Turning off some extraneous features (row and column headings, scroll bars, sheet tabs, etc.) –Invoking View | Workbook Views | Full Screen. –Entering special symbols from Insert | Symbol. –Entering special symbols from (say) the Wingding font. –Mixing italic characters and subscripts; e.g., μ t. Hands-on Practice