Dashboard Analysis : A comprehensive Review
on metrics and performance
Diksha Kumari Priyanshu Ghosh
BE-CSE Scholar BE-CSE Scholar
Chandigarh University, Chandigarh University,
21BCS8683@cuchd.in 21BCS8733@cuchd.in
Abstract— A dashboard acts as a web-based platform
which acts as centralized hub for users to access all kind of
tools, information, progress reports etc. This review paper
on Dashboards tries to present a systematic review on the
various works done in this field. This paper tries to present
a comprehensive summary of various works proposed on
the state of art of research on learning. As the research field
is still relatively young, most studies are exploratory and
proof-of-concept [1]. The present status and future
directions of dashboard technologies are summarized in this
paper. It examines the development of data visualization
techniques, integrating cutting-edge approaches like
interactive elements, 3D visualization, and augmented and
virtual reality. All things considered; this review paper tries
to give a thorough review of the developments that are
currently occurring in dashboard technologies as well as
insights into how important they are for navigating the
complexity of today's data environments.
Keywords—Dashboards, Learning Analysis, Systematic
review, Higher Education, Data mining, Data visualization
I INTRODUCTION
In the era of digitalization and information overload where
almost everything is available in just one click, every
information that we want is available online the main concern
has shifted from availability of data to accessibility of data
and how effectively data can be utilized. Dashboards thus,
provide a solution for the same. Dashboards are built and
employed in almost every sector and industry supporting
decision making, efficient use of data by presenting data in
an easy to use and visually appealing manner. Thus,
considering the importance of dashboards in almost every
field of work there is a need of thorough research. This paper
tries to communicate the various research studies conducted
in this field.
979-8-3503-3324-4/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE
The purpose of the Dashboard is to provide users with a single
location to access a variety of tools and user information[1]
concerned with the user and avoid overwhelming with the
amount of data present . The term dashboard which initially
implied the car’s dashboard which included an array of simple
controls (e.g., the steering wheel) and instrumentation could
Shivam Mor Er .Preety Sharma
BE-CSE Scholar Assistant Proffesor CSE
Chandigarh University, Chandigarh University,
21BCS8981@cuchd.in preety.e16374@cumail.in
be though as a space from where everything could be
controlled . Similarly, the digital dashboards are also a space
to keep check on the data available in the databases and to
control and manage information.
With the studies and research paper we have gone through the
definition of dashboard was unambiguous and varied from
person to person depending upon it’s need . Shemwell [2]
suggested that visual displays are critical to sense-making as
humans can process large amounts of data if presented in
meaningful ways. ]. Brouns et al. [3] described dashboards as
“an easy to read, often single page, real-time user interface,
showing a graphical presentation of the current status
(snapshot) and historical trends of an organization’s key
performance indicators (KPIs) to enable instantaneous and
informed decisions to be made at a glance. Few [4] describes
dashboards narrowly: “a predominantly visual information
displays that people use to rapidly monitor current conditions
that require a timely response to fulfill a specific role.”
According to Abduldaem1*, Andy Gravell2[5] 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.
The key benefits of dashboard include decision making,
accessibility, mobility, business intelligence, benchmarking,
communication. But the main concern is even after multiple
benefits provided in various sectors the importance of
dashboards is still undermined by the researcher’s community.
In the paper “What do we talk about when we talk about
dashboards” the researchers argue that dashboards are worthy
of discussion and research in their own right. Their ubiquity
alone makes them worthy of study, as the potential for impact
is vast[6]. This paper tries to explore the importance of
dashboards and it’s construction more into deep.
III. OBJECTIVE OF REVIEW
Ther have been various researches conducted on the
Dashboard but there is a lack in systematic review on the
subject of interest. Authors Alper Sarikaya, Michael Correll,
Lyn Bartram, Melanie Tory, and Danyel Fisher argue that the
dashboard’s ubiquity alone makes them worthy of study, as
the potential for impact is vast.[6]
This paper also tries to fulfill gap in the researches provided
by critically analyzing the researches present . By doing so
we aim to provide a thorough understanding on how
dashboards are benefitting users by providing a common
space to organize and control user data. Also this review is
going to give insights into various research works done and
future work needed to be done to enhance user experience
and dashboards usability. Along with it this review paper can
be helpful for the scholars as an introductory paper who wish
to do further research in this area.
Majority of the papers suggested that their future work will
entail testing their concept on larger or different user groups
and refining their design. Five papers have pointed out that
given the unresolved issues in the field of learning
dashboards, ethics and data privacy considerations seem to
be especially essential.
Furthermore, this systematic review tries to explore the
following:
(i) Types and categories of dashboards
(ii) Various domains and uses where dashboards
are vastly used
(iii) How can Dashboards
designing and implementation be
enhanced
(iv) What possible future works need to be done to
enhance dashboards usability.
III LITERATURE REVIEW
We conducted an exploratory search with a goal to explore
different types of dashboard ideas , designs an tools used in
parallel we conducted a multi domain research to explore the
vast usage and practices surrounding dashboards. Through
the domain review, we were able to characterize dashboard
uses and domains and pinpoint pressing challenges as
identified by the literature. We also discuss problems and
difficulties that arise when using dashboards in real-world
scenarios; some of these draw attention to the social context
of dashboards as the main "big data" interface. In the end, we
pinpoint a number of intriguing and important research
directions. A. Dashboards Definition:
As discussed earlier in the introduction section that the
definition of dashboards is still unambiguous. Its definition
varies from person to person depending upon it’s usage. B.
Types of dashboards:
As the we conducted the research we found there were no
clear universal type distinction given for dashboards. With
the research analysis we can divide dashboards on the basis
of data visualization and usage into (i) Static dashboards (ii)
Dynamic dashboards.
i) Static dashboards: These dashboards are
mainly concerned with visual display. They
tend to lack the interactivity element and are
designed only for the purpose of general
awareness and information display [6]. These
dashboards are generally seen in business and
educational usage where employee and student
data need to be accessed and displayed.
ii) Dynamic dashboards: These dashboards are
having interactivity and decision-making
components where dashboards can analyze,
predict and make judgements about the user’s
performance. The functionality is more
advanced as the users can interact in order to
focus on the data only relevant to them . Such
dashboards are seen in business (market
predictions), healthcare (health evaluation) and
Higher education(student’s performance
evaluation) .
C. Fields of Usage:
Going further with the research we found that
dashboards were incorporated in vast fields like
business, health care, smart cities, Iot applications,
student performance evaluation. But majority of the
papers covered healthcare sector, business sector and
Learning evaluation so we will be discussing these
three in detail.
i) Business modelling dashboards:
Model-driven business transformation and
business performance modeling are two areas of
research that have gained a lot of attention recently.
In this paper [7]. These days, a wide range of
vendors offer complex tools for representing
business activity and business process models
[8][9]. models for monitoring [9][10]. Business
Achievement. In BPM management (BPM) [11], a
variety of elements that serve as a health monitor for
the company. It offers noteworthy advantages to the
businesses by providing them with the capacity to
respond quickly to alterations in their surroundings
[12]. The modern dashboards displays key
performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk
indicators(KRIs) , in related charts, maps, and
scorecards , in order for an enterprise to focus on the
most important activities [13]. ii) Educational Field:
Dashboards play a major in learning and evaluating the
students performance in the era of online education and
digitalization of study resources. R.Carrilo et al.,C.
Reanaud et al. ,Y . Prie et al.and E. Lavoue et al. talk
about how to improve learner’s engagement by
constructing mind maps[18] .The authors write about
how student dashboards are useful in in the field of
Learning analytics and Data mining[1] the two major
terms vastly used by authors to describe the
implementation usage in learning field . The volume
and complexity of data being gathered by educational
technologies, like Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) and Learning Management Systems (LMS),
is growing quickly [1]. According to the paper published
by T.Elias[4] Learning analytics is an emerging field in
which sophisticated analytic tools are used to improve
learning and education. Learning analytics is product of
increase in online education[14] . Also there is a recent
increase in interest in improving learning and teaching by
analysis of data , how it can be used to enhance learning
experience of students and also the user experience of
different stakeholders. Thus, learning analysis can be
described as analysis of user data and how this data can be
used to further improve user experience of Dashboards.
Then the data that is gathered needs to be analyzed,
processed and visualized [15].

The process of sifting through massive data sets to find links
and patterns that may be used to address business problems
through data analysis is known as data mining. Businesses
are able to forecast future trends and make better informed
business decisions by utilizing data mining techniques and
technologies. Data mining enables discovery of hidden
information from many patterns of relationships that exist
within these large, often noisy and messy datasets [16]. Also
it aid’s human understanding and support learner’s
performance improvements[17].Currently there are various
emerging technologies which an help in data analysis and
finding relationships between data. With the introduction of
AI and machine learning data mining can be integrated in
dashboards which can further help in improving it’s
performance.
iii) Health Care :
Health Care industry being such an essential service
provider it’s efficiency can be of great benefit not only
from business perspective but, also for the general public.
Our research found that dashboards are massively used in
the health care sector . Dashboards are not only used to as
data visualization tool but also used as a preventative
measure for certain patients detoriating health. Examples
would be .A research in the development of dashboards to
monitor information obtained from a hospital organization
to support decision makers. This was done basically to for
hospital organization need to improve service access and
for managers to optimize resource allocation [19].
Digitization of patients healthcare information has
profoundly impacted the healthcare industry [20] in a
positive way and is going to further impact in future.
D. Challenges:
After going through the various researches, we found that the
main challenges in the dashboard implementation were
mainly:
Design concerns: How data is being visually represented an
so that the user experience is enhanced. As we all know that
visually appealing things attract user’s attention more. Don
Norman [21] defines User Experience (UX) as the degree to
which a product enhances the user's experience. The user's
needs must be met in order for the experience to be
successful, and any issues or complications in the user's
activity must be avoided. Selection of design can be
challenging as design not only needs to be visually appealing
to the user but also it should have usability. There needs to be
a balance between both.
User Data gathering: The data collected mainly included
login information of the users, time spend on the dashboard,
information accessed by the users . But the main concerns
were user data access. User will provide their information
only if there is trust. Users need to know who is having access
to their data and how their data is used to track their progress.
Implementing dashboards, This includes investigating
particular requirements for different user groups (learners,
instructors, mangers, staffs etc), determining the granularity
level of information be-ing displayed on the dashboard, and
adopting proper visualization techniques, as users could get
overwhelmed by the amount of information presented to
them confused by visualizations type.
Security and Ethical concerns: As discussed before that
users need to know who is accessing their data and for what
purpose . Apart from that their were concerns about data
breach and data leak. So , infrastructure of dashboard needs
to be strong. As , it builds user trust .
E. Improving designing and model of dashboards:
I) Data visualization: Visualization plays an important
role in making the user experience more enriching. Also, in
the current era of information overload choosing the correct
visualization technique is important . Data can be represented
graphs, maps , dials, text, Line graph, Bar Graph, Pie chart ,
box graph, Scatter plot etc. [1][22]. Most LADs (Learning
analytics Dashboards ) use graphical visualization techniques
however it can be hard to interpret for some user .Thus, a
research in textual reporting in learning analytics developed
tools which can provide textual description of the graphical
visualization of data which can be used as a complementary
tool in textual reporting and data visualization[23]. Useful
dashboards are characterized by two main functions: the
selection of appropriate data; and the choice of the most
appropriate visualization technique [24].
Author of Design Principles in the Development of
Dashboards for Business Management talk about the
importance of logos. How developing a strong identity is
important and how logos can be useful in it [25]. In order to
result in a representation in various graph types that allow for
a thorough understanding of the data, this visual
transformation must be structured in accordance with the
type of data presented and with different visual attributes,
namely position, saturation, and size [26].
II) User Data and experience: User is the audience ,
and everything needs to be customized according to
audience’s needs. A dashboard should be designed keeping
user as the center of attention, user should be able to see
through the dashboard with minimal effort, Visualizations
used in the dashboard should be easy to understand for the
user with minimal effort [27]. Also, we observed that user
data gathering plays an important role in the efficiency of
dashboard. It is important to understand our goal and object
and keeping that in mind we need to gather user data. Also
ask relevant questions in order to understand which part of
the data is relevant to our study and which is not. It can help
in getting rid of unnecessary data and avoid information
overload.
III) Decision making: One of the most important aspect
of a dashboard’s performance is decision making . In the
above section as we divided dashboards into two sections one
is static (which only displays information) and another one is
dynamic which (provides necessary feedback as well). Being
able to make predictions and judgements and provide the
necessary feedback is an important feature of dashboards
which can be improved if dashboard’s decision-making
abilities are improved.
IV) Updates : In order to keep up with the new industrial
features and changes in technology a dashboard’s model
should be build in such a way that it should be able to handle
updates . Many dashboards are connected to datasets that are
regularly updated, and the data within them automatically
refreshes. An updatable dashboard accommodates changing
data[6].
IV METHODOLOGY
The methodology used for this review is purely desk based
and no physical research has been done for this review. The
review has been done completely on the basis of secondary
data sources available online. This method of data collection
is known as desk research [5]. Also, the primary sources used
for data and research material collection are IEEE Xplore3,
SpringerLink4 and Google scholar. It is to be noted that the
gaps in our research could possibly be , our reasecrh is
completely based on dashboards ,thus it is possible that the
research articles not containing the keyword dashboard might
not be included . Any kind of data that has been taken as a
reference has been properly cited in this review paper in the
reference section.
V CONCLUSION
Concluding our work, we find that dashboards are emerging
as a very beneficial tool in various fields and areas of work.
In this paper we tried to summarize the various research
works done on dashboards. We tried to present a summary of
the work done by other scholars which will be beneficial and
time saving for the other scholars who wish to research
further in this area. Through our research and review we
observed that there is still lot more needed to be done in this
field. We also observed that a proper definition for
dashboards is lacking . A definition is the starting point for
every research .Also we found that in spite of the benefits that
dashboards provide still their importance is undermined not
only by research community but also by other professions.
VI FUTURE WORK
Examining and comprehending new trends, technologies,
and approaches that support the advancement of dashboard
design, development, and use are essential components of
studying dashboards in the future. We feel that dashboards
could be made better by integrating more advanced
technologies for data visualization . There are new advanced
technologies like AR augmented reality which can be helpful
in 3D visualization of dashboards and can be helpful in
making dashboards more interactive . Also we can introduce
real time data integration. Also with the advancement in AI
and other Artificial Intelligence tools dashboards can be
made more interactive . Also, Other artificial intelligence
algorithms can be integrated into dashboards which can be
further helpful in predictive analysis and provide more
intelligent insights. Also there need to be work done in
security and we need more advanced encryption techniques
which can be helpful in making use data more secure. While
doing thi swe need to take ethical considerations into
account.
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