Dashboards are a visual representation of the data that helps focus on various matrices and which can be altered based on user requirements. They are graphical representation of information which is easy to read and interpret. On the other hand, Executive Dashboard is a computer based interface connected using Application Programming Interface (API) to the business systems one uses (Lavinsky, 2013). Executive dashboards provide a helicopter view of the analysis before digging deeper into the data (TechTarget, 2006). They provide with information that help achieve business objectives and help make faster business decisions. For example for a given website the executives might be interested only in the topline information rather than the in depth
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An effective dashboard design is the one that not only presents the important data at one glimpse and are simple to read and understand, but also the one that you are able to communicate, energize, and evangelize all in one shot (Kaushik, Chapter 13: The Web Analytics Career, 2010). Adding widgets along with the dashboards can be very powerful in expressing the data collected and give a better drive towards story telling of your data. As outlined by Tableau in its article, let us take a look at the top 5 best practices to create an effective Dashboard (Tableau, …show more content…
Make it simple to access and use: While the dashboards maybe created on various platforms, not all the end users might have the same tools to view it hence making the dashboards available over a network or web from which everyone can easily access or use is very important.
To combine the learnings mentioned above with the below simple tips will help make the effective Executive Dashboard (Morgan, 2013):
1. Executive and Managerial needs are different: An executive need is very different as compared to the lower to middle managers and hence designing dashboards for each could be challenging. Executives are interested in data across all the business units and need to make business decisions by looking at the overall data as compared to lower organization team who may be interested only in the individual business unit that they are assigned to.
2. Fit everything you need into one screen: Executives are usually pressed for time as they have high responsibilities and are always the need the information at their fingertips. Having a dashboard with all the key information right in front of them at a single glance without navigating through multiple pages is an effective
An effective dashboard design is the one that not only presents the important data at one glimpse and are simple to read and understand, but also the one that you are able to communicate, energize, and evangelize all in one shot (Kaushik, Chapter 13: The Web Analytics Career, 2010). Adding widgets along with the dashboards can be very powerful in expressing the data collected and give a better drive towards story telling of your data. As outlined by Tableau in its article, let us take a look at the top 5 best practices to create an effective Dashboard (Tableau, …show more content…
Make it simple to access and use: While the dashboards maybe created on various platforms, not all the end users might have the same tools to view it hence making the dashboards available over a network or web from which everyone can easily access or use is very important.
To combine the learnings mentioned above with the below simple tips will help make the effective Executive Dashboard (Morgan, 2013):
1. Executive and Managerial needs are different: An executive need is very different as compared to the lower to middle managers and hence designing dashboards for each could be challenging. Executives are interested in data across all the business units and need to make business decisions by looking at the overall data as compared to lower organization team who may be interested only in the individual business unit that they are assigned to.
2. Fit everything you need into one screen: Executives are usually pressed for time as they have high responsibilities and are always the need the information at their fingertips. Having a dashboard with all the key information right in front of them at a single glance without navigating through multiple pages is an effective