1KEY Dashboard - Because Humans Think Visually!
Author: Amit Mehendale, Head Delivery, MAIA Intelligence.
Dashboards are the visual representation of data. Data – the content.
Content is king and GUI is queen.
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.
Just as the automobile’s dashboard provides all the critical information needed to operate the vehicle at a glance, a Dashboard serves a similar purpose whether you’re using it to make strategic decisions for a huge corporation, run the daily operations of a team, or perform tasks that involve no one but you. The means is a single-screen display; the purpose is to efficiently keep in touch with the information needed to do something.
Dashboards usually contain data summarized to a high level to enable users to quickly understand the larger trends affecting the organization, with the ability to “drill down” to greater levels of detail as required. It’s important that the dashboard display information in a clear, concise, and intuitive manner and that the information display can be customized to a user’s particular requirements.
Dashboards are typically used for displaying metrics defined by the organization, such as products sold by region, defects per thousand shipped, or student grades by faculty. Typically, these metrics are expressed as key performance indicators (KPIs), and a typical dashboard brings several KPIs together across aspects of the business.
Typically dashboards should have the following:
o Multiple report type attached in a single group report
o Can create View, Cube, Chart, Gauge Chart, RSS feed, KPI in Dashboard
o Parameter filters at run time
o Common & independent parameter can be changed at run time
o Specific report based properties relating to View, Cube, Chart, KPI
o Maximizing / restoring report
o Common printing & exporting for all reports
From a decision maker’s perspective, Dashboards provides a useful way to view data and information. Outcomes displayed include single metrics, graphical trend analysis, capacity gauges, geographical maps, percentage share, stoplights, and variance comparisons. A “Dashboard” type user interface design allows presentation of complex relationships and performance metrics in a format that is easily understandable and digestible by time pressured managers. More specifically, such interface designs significantly shorten the learning curve and thus increase the likelihood of effective utilization.
Dashboards like that of 1KEY can be easily combined with interactivity, user self-serviceability, and collaboration, coupled with role-based security and best-in-class alerting features. It’s a single [dashboard] interface that can be used by everyone [in an organization]: from directors to power users to people playing what-if games.
Dashboards represent the ultimate manifestation of getting the right information in front of key users at the right time principle. Dashboards have different degrees of deployment, anything from a single view in four easy measures of the health and wealth of the business, right down to the alignment of appropriate resource to requirement.
It empowers managers to make smarter decisions by relying on measurable data via at-a-glance summaries of key performance indicators. Dashboards can then be used to drill down to gain valuable insights that show what’s truly driving the business performance.
Dashboards readily reflect the state of an organization and represent a very holistic, high level view with some containing more latent views than others. It’s very easy to look at a profit and loss (P&L) display to determine if a company is down on profit. Viewing the P&L however, doesn’t show management why business is down and what it relates to on the bottom line. Just as easy as it is to view a P&L, it’s easier to design a dashboard that not only shows the company’s financial status, but also reports back to management the direct connection in the business that relates to increased or decreased profitability.
1KEY AGILE has Dashboards where users can define their own Dashboards using wizards to get all relevant data on one single screen like View, Gauge, Chart, KPI’s etc, combination of multiple reports.
Single window view all types of nos. facts & figures in multiple way, multi data presentation. E.g. CEO requires complete performance of Sales, Orders in hand, revenue v/s budget, its outstanding, Cash Flow, Salesman performance, Product wise stock in hand, Budget & Expenses etc.
Dashboards must be lightweight and valuable extensions of the BI deployments. 1KEY Dashboards are lightweight because they access only the portions of data needed by a particular user and can be rapidly built by either consultants or internal IT staff. They are valuable because they immediately publish data to a large number of employees and eliminate labor-intensive data gathering workflows.
1KEY Dashboard Builder
1KEY RSS FEED
Some excerpts taken from the book: Information Dashboard Design- Stephen Few
Posted on March 7th, 2008 by Amit Mehendale
Filed under: View Points & Perspective
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