One of the recent water cooler conversations around the Mozplex has been about dashboards. The question: What makes a great dashboard? We all use these top-level reports in various apps everyday, for professional and personal reasons, and some are better than others.
At their best, these reports can do an amazing job of making our work more efficient. You check the dashboard, review your progress, gather some insights, and know what to do next. Etta James cues up, the clouds part, sunshine beams down on your desk, and a unicorn gallops in slow motion past your office window.
But at their worst, dashboards are lacking in useful info, cluttered, or convoluted. They amount to one more click between you and the real details you need in an app, adding to the clown-car cycle of chasing down your next actions.