Shadowing the Pros in dashboard design

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.Stephen Few, consultant and author of books on practical data visualization techniques for analyzing and presenting quantitative information

 

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The GainSeeker Charts dashboard design window features tools for creating dashboards from the simple to the complex, which display pertinent data at a glance and with a click.

Designing Interactive dashboards

This interactive dashboard example features the manufacturing floor of a fictitious cookie company. With a single click, the dashboard controls on this dashboard window allow quick access to data entry, charts, desktops, and other information. Dashboard controls can be set to refresh to display the latest data at an interval you set or they can refresh along with the dashboard.

Designing this dashboard

The dashboard example above is comprised of:

There are more than a dozen dashboard control types, many of which also offer interactive features. For more information, see Adding dashboard controls to the dashboard window

Setting a background image to display on the dashboard window

To select a background image for a dashboard:

  1. With a dashboard open in design/edit mode, click the Backgroundimage property in the Appearance category on the Properties dialog box.

  2. Then, click the ellipsis button to display the Open file dialog box. Select a saved image to add to the dashboard background.

Adding the Button controls to this Dashboard

The following is an overview about adding the Button controls to the dashboard. For more detailed information about this control, see Button dashboard control

To add the Enter Data or View Charts button controls:

  1. Add a Button control to the dashboard window that is in design/edit mode. See Add a Button control to the dashboard window

  2. On the Dashboard Control Retrieval dialog box that opens, click the No Retrieval button.

  3. On the Set Label Text dialog box that opens, enter the caption "Enter Data" (or "View Charts" for the other button) to display as a label on the Button control.

The Button opens on the dashboard window. Now, you can change properties for the Button.

  1. Click the new Button control to display the properties for it on the Properties dialog box (refer to diagram below).

  1. Click the ClickAction property in the Behavior category, and then click the ellipsis button:

The Select Action Items dialog opens. Use this dialog box to select the click-action item for the control. For more information, see Selecting the ClickAction property

Repeat steps 15 above for manufacturing lines #2 and #3 on the dashboard.

Adding the DateTime controls to this Dashboard

The following is an overview about adding the DateTime controls to the dashboard. For more detailed information about this control, see DateTime dashboard control

To add the DateTime control to the dashboard for a standard:

  1. Add a DateTime control to the dashboard window that is in design/edit mode. See Adding a DateTime control to a dashboard window

  2. On the DateTime Display Options dialog box that opens, select a time display option. For this dashboard example, the DateTime controls are set to reflect the Last Data (date and time of most recent data) based on time elapsed since last check. For more information on this and other options, see Selecting a DateTime Display option

  1. Optionally select the conditions under which you want exception colors to display on the button. For this dashboard example, the button will turn red when a scheduled data collection is overdue; yellow, five minutes before a scheduled collection; and orange, when there is no recent data. See Displaying exception colors on the control

  2. Select a Filter that limits the data to only the data you want to track, such as the manufacturing line in this example. See Working with Filters and Using Quick Filters. for information on selecting filter conditions

Repeat steps 13 above for each manufacturing line.

More dynamic dashboards

You can find information about different ways that GainSeeker customers use dashboards by reading "The Data Heads" blog at the Hertzler Systems Inc. website.

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