What Is A Dashboard

What is a Dashboard?
Defining dashboards, visual analysis tools

and other data presentation media
by Alexander 'Sandy' Chiang, Research Director, Dashboard InsightMonday, November 28,
2011
Introduction
There are many different ideas of what a dashboard is. This article will clearly define it along
with other presentation tools. In my article, What is BI - A Business Intelligence Primer, I
discussed the presentation layer of the business intelligence technology stack. To reiterate, there
are typically four types of presentation media: dashboards, visual analysis tools, scorecards, and
reports. These are all visual representations of data that help people identify correlations, trends,
outliers (anomalies), patterns, and business conditions. However, they all have their own unique
attributes.
Dashboards
Dashboard Insight uses Stephen Few’s definition of a dashboard:
A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or
more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be
monitored at a glance.
Here are the key characteristics of a dashboard:
 All the visualizations fit on a single computer screen — scrolling to see more violates the
definition of a dashboard.
 It shows the most important performance indicators / performance measures to be
monitored.
 Interactivity such as filtering and drill-down can be used in a dashboard; however, those
types of actions should not be required to see which performance indicators are under
performing.
 It is not designed exclusively for executives but rather should be used by the general
workforce as effective dashboards are easy to understand and use.
 The displayed data automatically updated without any assistance from the user. The
frequency of the update will vary by organization and by purpose. The most effective
dashboards have data updated at least on a daily basis.
Click to enlarge image.
Visual Analysis Tools

Some consider tools that offer the ability to select various date ranges, pick different products, or
drill down to more detailed data to be dashboards. At Dashboard Insight, we classify these as
visual analysis tools.
Here are the key characteristics of a visual analysis tool:
 It fits on one screen, but there may be scroll bars for tables with too many rows or charts
with too many data points.
 It is highly interactive and usually provides functionality like filtering and drill downs.
 It is primarily used to find correlations, trends, outliers (anomalies), patterns, and
business conditions in data.
 The data used in a visual analysis tool is generally historical data. However, there are
some cases where real-time data is analyzed.
 It helps to identify performance indicators for use in dashboards.
 It is typically relied on by technically savvy users like data analysts and researchers.
Scorecards
Scorecards and dashboards are often used interchangeably, but Dashboard Insight has a specific
definition:
A scorecard is a tabular visualization of measures and their respective targets with visual
indicators to see how each measure is performing against their targets at a glance
In addition, it should not be confused with Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard. Here are
the key characteristics of a scorecard:
 It contains at least a measure, its value, its target, and a visual indication of the status (e.g.
a circular traffic light that is green for good, yellow for warning, and red for bad) on each
row.
 It can be used in a dashboard but the scorecard should not be interactive nor contain
scroll bars.
 It can be used in a visual analysis tool but the scorecard doesn’t need to be interactive.
 It may contain columns that show trends in sparklines.
Reports
Reports contain detailed data in a tabular format and typically display numbers and text only, but
they can use visualizations to highlight key data.
Here are the key characteristics of a report
 It presents numbers and text in a table.

 It can contain visualizations but only used to highlight findings in the data.
 It is optimized for printing and exporting to a digital document format such as Word or
PDF.
 It is geared towards people who prefer to read data, for example, lawyers, who would
rather read text over interpreting visualizations, and accountants, who are comfortable
working with raw numbers.

Related Articles
 Critical Dashboard Project Success Factors That Most Tend To MIss

 Beauty Can Only Be Skin (or Visualization) Deep
 The Psychology of Dashboards
 The Dashboard Demystified
 Thinking Outside the Mobile BI Box - An Intro to Dundas Mobile

Discussion:
jacob oram said:
A dashboard displays all accordant KPIs to accomplish a assertive cold at a glance.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 6:22:16 AM - Report post
Alexander 'Sandy' Chiang said:
@jacob - I don't get the joke?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 10:22:04 AM - Report post
Nat Cav said:
Can someone clarify the difference between an excel spreadsheet and a dashboard. How do I
explain to others that their plain spreadsheets are not dashboards! Or are they?
What defines a true Dashboard?? Anyone?
- See more at: http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/what-

is-a-dashboard.aspx#sthash.yyV68KgT.dpuf

What Is A Dashboard

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What Is A Dashboard

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

What Is A Dashboard

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What is a Dashboard?

Defining dashboards, visual analysis tools

Here are the key characteristics of a dashboard:

Visual Analysis Tools

 It presents numbers and text in a table.

Click to enlarge image.

 Critical Dashboard Project Success Factors That Most Tend To MIss

A dashboard displays all accordant KPIs to accomplish a assertive cold at a glance.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 6:22:16 AM - Report post

Alexander 'Sandy' Chiang said:

@jacob - I don't get the joke?

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 10:22:04 AM - Report post

Nat Cav said:

- See more at: http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/what-

You might also like