Many people rely on web-based applications hosted by either Google or Microsoft, two of the major Internet service companies. How can their users check the status of these applications?
Dashboards for Computer Systems
An automobile's dashboard displays critical information in a compact, easy-to-understand way. Speed, fuel, and warning indicators are major items in a dashboard. The radio station is displayed elsewhere, because it is not critical to safe driving.
Many computer systems also have dashboards to present important information in a clear and concise manner. The three dashboards in this article show the status of different systems as "good", "slow", "unavailable" or "extra notes are available".
Each dashboard also has a link for reporting problems, although these are simple text links rather than eye-catching function buttons. Perhaps the companies do not expect many problems to be reported.
The Google Apps Status Dashboard
This is a very simple dashboard. The possible status values are "No issues", "Service disruption", "Service outage" and "Information available". The dashboard shows the status for the last seven days, although the "Older" button travels into the past, displaying one week per click backwards.
The one link to the "Help Center" serves those users reporting problems and those seeking information. There is only one RSS feed for all the applications.
Google Mail, also known as gmail, may be the most heavily used application. Click on any symbol, even the green check mark indicating "No issues", to see more about that application.
The Windows Live Service Status Dashboard
Microsoft provides the most simple dashboard, showing only the current status of its major services in the "Windows Live" family. Windows Hotmail and Windows Messenger could be the most used.
"Report an issue" is a text link. So is "View history", which allows the user to see the status for only the past seven days.
Click on almost anything to see more detail. For example, clicking on "Hotmail", the status symbol, or the text status brings up the status for Hotmail for the past seven days.
While it may be nice that almost everything is a link, Microsoft broke the rule that links should provide a visual clue to the user. Nothing on this page provided the usual cues. Specifically, the text links have the standard colour and are not underlined.
Users might bemoan the lack of an explanation of the status symbols on this page. Perhaps the developers expect that everything is self-explanatory.
The Windows Azure Status Dashboard
By far the busiest dashboard visually, Windows Azure provides almost all its links in the top navigation menu. There are two lists of services: the top has the current status; the bottom has history. The bottom section has two controls: the white-and-blue circle navigates history, and the drop-down menu selects the service category.
The bottom of the page has the explanations for the status symbols: "Normal service availability"; "Performance degradation"; "Service interruption"; and "Additional information".
The Azure dashboard is the only one in this article to give any extra value beyond status information. The "search" function and the top navigation menu provide real assistance to users, who could bookmark this page as their gateway to Azure.
Again, "Report a live site issue" is a small text link, but at least it is underlined. Each service has its own RSS feed, so the user can choose to track only the services of interest.
The Value of a Dashboard
Most people would only check the dashboard when a problem is noticed: either slow service or none at all. All three of these pages perform this function.
As well, users can check the company's report on how the problem is being, or had been, resolved. Finally, the dashboard is the portal to the Help Desk.
Sources, where the first three are the actual dashboards:
- "Google Apps", referenced March 28, 2011.
- "Windows Live", referenced March 28, 2011.
- "Windows Azure", referenced March 28, 2011.
- "New Status Dashboard for Google Apps", referenced March 28, 2011.
- "Apps Status Dashboard goes global in 24 new languages", referenced March 28, 2011.
Note about the images, which are the author's "artistic impressions" of the actual screens: Click on any image below to see a larger version of my annotated mock-up of a "status dashboard" screen.
Mike DeHaan - Copyright (c) Mike DeHaan, B. Math., of DeHaan Services. Well written and well researched freelance articles; ghost writing for clients.
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