Introduction
The uniqueness of the dashboard has run its course. The once requested features have now become a liability especially in larger organizations where multiple dashboards lead to confusion rather than simplicity. Although opinions vary from one company to another, Handy has compiled a list of the most common reasons why dashboards have become extinct in contemporary times.
The Reasons
- Oversaturation- Organizations began adopting dashboards but failed to use them to their full capability. Different dashboards provided a series of information that was often not required in most cases. Relatively smaller tasks such as presentations do not usually require a dashboard and can be done with other reports.
Using a separate dashboard is not efficient because the usefulness of the dashboard runs its course once the presentation is over. Setting up a dashboard requires significant resources and team effort which goes to waste in the end. It’s demoralizing and is resented upon, becoming one of the key reasons why dashboard usage has died in contemporary times.
- Excessive Use of Filters- Once a dashboard has gone live, the developers are flooded with custom filter requests. Creating customized filters for an entire organization is difficult. This either results in the dashboard ending up useless or the tools becoming absent or inefficient at the job.
In most cases, individuals using the dashboard usually export the data to an excel sheet and do their own editing. As a result, the effort invested by the development team goes to waste. If you prefer editing data on excel, why ask for separate tools in your dashboard? The effort spent on developing such faculties technically goes to waste, making dashboards inherently useless.
- Misunderstanding- Often, individuals who are not acquainted with the dashboard, misunderstand the interface. As such individuals are unable to comprehend the information, they chalk it up as ‘big data’.
A lot of work goes into creating the list of data found in a dashboard. This sort of misunderstanding takes a toll on the development. The foreboding sense of mistrust grows further as the developers cannot provide raw data to the workers. If they do so, then everyone would end up creating their own metric definitions, further adding to the confusion.
- Better Technologies- With the advent of standalone analytical widgets and modern applications, keeping track of analytics has become increasingly easier and much more efficient than dedicated dashboards. Applications offer added functionalities such as keeping track of the amount of work everyone is doing along with other features.
- Data Notebooks- Data Notebooks are the new form for recording and displaying information to organizations. The very construct of these notebooks makes it easier to script and record big data analytics.
Viewers not only get to see the metrics, but also the code used to design the data structure. It also offers better flexibility when sharing the information with hundreds of people within an organization.
Conclusion
According to Handy, technological inventions are always surpassed by newer and more advanced ideas in the future. The 21st century has witnessed a massive surge in technological marvels both physically and digitally. However, it is a fact that even the best technological marvels will become obsolete after a certain period.
