Dashboard (information management)

As a dashboard in is Information Management , a graphical user interface called that for visualization of data is used. The name comes from the English term for a dashboard in a car and refers to the fact that, like a dashboard, information from various sources is displayed at a glance as required.

Dashboards are used in a wide variety of areas, with server administration being an early field of application . Typical functions of a dashboard for sysadmins are displays of accesses, users, reaction times, cache functions and problems. The central task of a dashboard is to provide the administrator with information with which he can identify problems and their causes so that he can improve server or network settings, databases in the background or hardware and software.

In the financial sector, for example, developments in key performance indicators are displayed.

A book on the interface design of information dashboards defines:

"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

properties

In order to make the information required in each case comprehensible at a glance, dashboards have to reduce complexity . They have to choose abstract representations and be adaptable to the specific needs. It can make sense to choose a progressive design in which information is only displayed when it is relevant. In the analog world, the latter corresponds to warning lights that only come on when there is a problem.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Shane Ketterman: Top Data Visualization Examples and Dashboard Designs . Top valley design
2. ↑ Summary of functions from Microsoft: Overview of the Dashboard in Windows Server Essentials , 2016 and reviewboard.org: Administrator Dashboard
3. ↑ Stephen Few: Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data . O'Reilly Media 2006, ISBN 978-0596100162
4. ↑ Stelian Subotin: Dashboard Design - Considerations and Best Practices . Top valley design