Targets, progress and status
Harvey ball status display
Represents an ordered rating or completion level using circles with filled fractions.
- Indicator
- Status
- Ordinal comparison
What it answers
How do ordinal ratings compare?
- Shape
- Partially filled circles
- What it shows
- Relative rating levels.
Example
The question
How well does each supplier meet our main criteria?
Supplier comparison on four criteria (Harvey balls)
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Compact ordered assessments with a clearly defined scale.
Avoid it when
Exact numeric interpretation unsupported by the rating system.
How to read it
Use the fill-level key and compare categories or levels.
Note
Define the scale rather than implying unearned numeric precision.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Item: text; Rating: ordered category or number
- One row is
- One item and a defined ordinal rating. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Declare the rating scale, such as integers 0 to 4, and map each level to a fill fraction.
- Optional
- Optional rating labels. Do not average ordinal levels without a rationale.
- Preparation
- Confirm the metric definition, reporting period, target and favourable direction. Calculate rates or progress before applying transparent status rules.
- Units
- Ordinal rating levels, such as 0-4. Filled fractions are symbols for levels unless a genuine percentage is supplied.
Worked example
Scale 0-4 maps 0 empty,2 half,4 full. ItemsA0, B2, C4 show ordinal levels, not necessarily equal business differences.
| Item | Rating |
|---|---|
| A | 0 |
| B | 2 |
| C | 4 |