Business Intelligence Dashboards are critical for guiding decision making in an organization. However, these tools are only effective if decision makers can extract the information they need from the dashboard quickly and draw accurate conclusions. This is determined by the design of the dashboard. A poorly designed dashboard will make it even harder to comprehend the data presented.
If you’re designing a BI dashboard for your business, keep in mind that a good BI dashboard:
Makes complex information simple
In order to make informed decisions, businesses must consider several metrics. There is therefore a lot of data to analyze and compare. This data changes frequently. A good dashboard presents the data in an easy way for decision makers to understand. It uses visual elements such as charts and line graphs to make complex data easy to understand.
Tells a clear story
It is important for a BI dashboard to answer the audience’s questions. The audience should be able to identify trends easily. They should be able to draw accurate conclusions by viewing your data. This means presenting data in a way that the audience can easily interpret. For example, if want to compare different metrics over time, a bar chart would be a great way to aide comparison.
Reveals more information when required
It is important to understand your audience when designing a dashboard. This ensures that you present relevant information to your audience. However, you should know that different people in your audience will look for different things from the information you provide. Some people will only be interested in the information provided upfront and nothing else.
Others may want a more detailed view of the data provided. Your dashboard should provide a means to reveal more detailed information when needed. This will ensure that the needs of your audience are met. It also ensures that all the information required by the audience is available from one place.
Every BI dashboard has its own goals, requirements and limitations. There are also other more specific guidelines for different industries. However, the above principles apply to all dashboards no matter what industry your organization is in. Learn more on the InetSoft website.