Hi, I'm the new WM Virtual Assistant chatbot. If you need assistance with anything, I'm here to help! Don’t end up paying for tens of user’s licenses, or worse yet, tens of user’s licenses that end up unused because of failed adoption. Shop for a vendor that allows you to deploy dashboards to unlimited users–e.g. Through a server-based licensing model. In the end, remember that the dashboard is just a tool.
According to a study by Microsoft, human beings have an attention span of just eight seconds. That means you have about seven seconds to get your point across.
Consider this: You could use those seven seconds on text alone – which gives your user time to read about 13 words. Or, you could use a visual to communicate an entire insight in just a tenth of a second. This is where dashboards really prove their value.
Dashboards are single screens that give users a clear view of the information that matters most. They empower us to meaningfully group visuals and tell a richer story. They transform raw data into critical information that jumps out to your users, who can comprehend and act on it in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take them.
Report powered by Power BI. Resources to help you with the Qualys Cloud Platform and its integrated Cloud Apps.
Dashboard design can mean the difference between users excitedly embracing your product or ignoring it altogether. Great dashboards lead to richer user experiences and significant return on investment (ROI), while poorly designed dashboards distract users, suppress adoption, and can even tarnish your project or brand.
Unsettlingly, you can even overdesign a dashboard. That’s one of the many reasons we wrote The Definitive Guide to Dashboard Design—to help you avoid common pitfalls, including…
- Cramming too much onto one screen and expecting the user to figure out what’s interesting and relevant on their own
- Getting carried away with fonts and colors so the user is distracted by formatting instead of focusing on the content
- Using visualizations that might look fancy, but really aren’t appropriate for conveying the data at hand
In this guide, we’ll look at examples of these and many more dashboard mistakes in action—as well as examples of great dashboards that embody the fundamentals of design. You’ll learn how to:
- Simplify content to reduce visual elements to only the most critical
- Use size to organize the layout of your data and create a visual hierarchy
- Choose a meaningful color palette that complements your data
- Emphasize important points using font types, color, and weight
- And much more!
If you already use reporting software, you may wonder why you need a dashboard at all. Aren’t dashboards just another way of presenting the information that’s in reports? Simply put: no! Dashboards are not reports.
In dashboard design, not all charts are created equal. A graph might look great, but that doesn’t mean it presents information in a way that can be easily understood and analyzed.
Mobile is changing the way we live. Whether we’re working, reading the news, or purchasing goods, we’re doing it all on mobile devices.
Once you’ve determined the data needs of the different personas in your user base and started coming up with your dashboard design, you still need a way to validate your decisions.
Visual design, usability, and psychology all play a part in how we should design user interfaces for dashboards. The user interface (UI) is the way a user accesses and interacts with your system.
The world we live in is full of overwhelming data and constantly flowing information, and most people have to decode this data to be successful in their jobs. Dashboards transform dull and sometimes opaque data into visually stunning insights that resonate with a wide range of users.
Logi’s out-of-the-box capabilities include an updated library with hundreds of elements for data visualizations, dashboards, and reports; self-service analysis; interactivity options; user input controls; data source connectors; and processes.
Dashboards–sometimes called IT dashboards or corporate dashboards–are single screens in which various critical pieces of information are placed in the form of panels. Like dashboards in a car, they allow the end-user to have a unified view of the data and information that matters to “drive” the business forward.
If a dashboard is useful, a Web-based dashboard is even more so. Blending the power of a desktop application with the flexibility and the navigability of the Web, its panels can be as diverse as:
- Business metrics such as charts and graphs
- Key performance indicators or KPIs
- GIS maps
- Web sites, news, RSS feeds, real-time stock or currency quotes
- Personal reminders
Advantages of Dashboards
Dashboards are valuable because they transform business data into critical information that jumps out to the user, who can then make sense and act on it immediately.
- Fast and effective decision-making – Gives executives, managers and analysts convenient immediate access to key performance metrics, which help them monitor performance and processes for a greater understanding of the business.
- On demand, accurate and relevant information in line with business priorities – Dashboards clearly communicate business objectives throughout the organization and allow users to see progress towards those goals. This keeps everyone focused and informed. With a personalized layout, users only see the information that is most important to them, and they can filter out information that is not relevant.
- Focused identification of problems, inefficiencies or negative trends for immediate action and improved performance Users can immediately see any problems and drill down on charts and links to explore detailed information and analyze data in real time, to determine root causes and to correct negative trends.
Best Practices Tips
As the “new face of BI,” a dashboard is an attractive feature for prospective buyers of business intelligence. Some go as far as almost thinking that a corporate dashboard has magical properties. It’s like a business talisman: just get it and in no time your decision-making will become more effective and your company more competitive. This is, of course, not the case. To be effective, dashboards need to be implemented smartly and with a view towards the company’s strategy. Let’s look at some best-practice tips to ensure you get the most out of your dashboard investment.
Do #1: Let the Dashboard Be Business-driven and Focused
Ask yourself: what competitive goals are you trying to achieve through this tool? What specific processes are you trying to make more efficient? What critical information are you trying to make more readily available and why? Be ruthlessly specific. The more surgically you zero in on precise tactics, the better your chance to achieve your strategy.
Example: you want the inventory of the top-10 SKUs to always remain optimal, so that you’re not out of goods while never getting overstocked. You set up a dashboard that shows this information in intuitive eyeful–in graphic form and of course in real time.
Don’t #1:
Don’t make the dashboard into a slightly less unprofessional version of solitaire. Too much freedom and too little focus, and your users will spend time on it for entertainment with your BI investment going to waste.
Do #2: Let the KPI Be Your Friend
What’s a KPI? It’s a key performance indicator–a color-coded dot or gauge that “indicates” if your “key” items are “performing” well or if they need corrective action. Set a threshold (e.g. minimum month-to-date sales) for the critical items; when you’re on the good side of the threshold, the KPI shows you a green dot–all OK. When you’re on the wrong side of the threshold, the KPI turns red–time to take action.Example: you want to have an optimal in-stock level of your top 10 SKUs. Have 10 KPIs that alert you without even having to read numbers. Green: all is going well. Red: either too much or too little inventory.
Don’t #2:
Don’t use too many KPIs. The “K” stands for “Key.” Prioritize and use KPIs only for your key items, otherwise your dashboard will become too cluttered and important information will fail to jump out to your users.
Do #3: Make Your Dashboard Actionable
The thermostat in your car reads 38 degrees. Does knowing that make you any warmer? Not unless you can act on the temperature-control lever. Without being able to act on what you see, a dashboard is as useful as than the morning paper–it informs you but it does not give you a chance to do something about what you read. Give yourself the power to see the information, understand what it means to your goals and act on it without leaving the application.Example: one of your inventory-level KPIs is red. Time to reorder. Instead of leaving the application, looking up the vendor, entering another program and placing the order, you just click on the “reorder” button right from your dashboard.
Don’t #3:
As you implement BI, don’t foster a culture of “knowers.” Foster one of “doers.” Remember that it’s actions that impact the bottom line, and that knowledge is only the prerequisite–albeit a critical prerequisite.Do #4: It’s a Web, Web World, Although…
With the Web taking over the world of BI, it’s become chic to malign desktop applications. Yes, having dashboards on the Web is almost essential today, making it easier to access them, share them and work on them from virtually anywhere. However, the best Web-based dashboard software still retains the features of a desktop application–flexible, easy to use, powerful, interactive, with that “dedicated” feel to them.
Brand New User Dashboard Released Date
Example: you should be able to move your panels around without refreshing the screen (thanks to technologies like AJAX), plus drill down, drill through and have persuasive and impactful features like Flash-powered charts and graphs.
Don’t #4:
Don’t set up a Web-based dashboard that looks and feels like an Internet site from 10 years ago–a static, read-only tool whose usefulness is greatly watered down.
Do #5: Make Dashboard Software Available to Everyone
Us BI industry insiders may not realize it, but it’s still out there. That culture where reporting and analysis is the domain of a few techies or upper management. For it to be useful, dashboard software should be available to every decision-maker in your company. And if you are smart about the way you manage your people, most your employees should be treated as decision makers.
Example: there’s no reason why your warehouse managers, your HR personnel, all your sales-force and your finance department (to name but a few), should not have access to dashboards making their jobs more efficient.
Don’t #5:
Don’t end up paying for tens of user’s licenses, or worse yet, tens of user’s licenses that end up unused because of failed adoption. Shop for a vendor that allows you to deploy dashboards to unlimited users–e.g. through a server-based licensing model.
In Summary
Brand New User Dashboard Released User
In the end, remember that the dashboard is just a tool. The easier it is to use, and the more directly it makes your employers’ life easier, the more it will be adopted. And the more it is adopted, the more positively it will impact your business.