From glitter to gold: Recommendations for effective dashboards from design through sustainment

Fernanda Sequeira Rossi, PhD
Stanford University

ABSTRACT:
Dashboards—tools that compile and summarize key performance data—have become increasingly utilized for supporting data organization and decision-making processes across various fields, such as business, economics, healthcare, and policy. The dashboard’s impact is dependent on its use by the individuals for whom it was designed. Yet, few studies measure dashboard use, and of those that do, their utility is limited. When dashboards go unused, they provide little value and impact. This presentation discusses the common pitfalls of dashboards that result in their limited use and how human-centered design and implementation science can improve dashboard relevance. It provides eight recommendations for effective dashboards from across the design to the sustainment phase.