Let’s explore some of the interactive features commonly found in dashboards. These features enable users to customize the view, analyze data, and gain insights by engaging with the information presented. Let’s dive into some of these features:
- Filters: Filters allow users to narrow down the data displayed on the dashboard based on specific criteria. For example, in a sales dashboard, a user might apply a filter to only show data from a particular region or time period, making it easier to focus on that specific area of interest.
- Sliders: Sliders provide a way to adjust a continuous variable within a certain range. For instance, in a marketing dashboard, a user could use a slider to adjust the budget for a particular campaign and immediately see the impact on key performance indicators such as leads or conversions.
- Search: Search functionality enables users to quickly locate specific data points or items within the dashboard. Imagine a customer service dashboard where a user can search for a specific customer’s name or ticket number to quickly view their information and history.
- Brushing: Brushing allows users to highlight related data points across multiple visualizations in a dashboard. When brushing is applied, selected data points are highlighted, and other visual elements in the dashboard that are dependent on the selection are updated accordingly. This can be useful for identifying trends, patterns, and outliers in the data or for comparing different subsets of data.
- Drill-down: Drill-down enables users to go from a summary to a more detailed view of that data. It involves clicking on a specific data point or element in the summary view to reveal more detailed information about it in a lower-level view. In a supply chain dashboard, a user might first view data at a regional level and then drill down to see data for individual warehouses or products, uncovering more detailed insights.
- Tooltips: Tooltips are small, informational pop-ups that appear when users hover over data points or elements in a visualization. For example, tooltips in a human resources dashboard could show additional information about employee demographics or performance metrics when a user hovers over a specific data point.
These interactive features make dashboards more engaging and informative, helping users make better-informed decisions and find insights more easily.