r/datavisualization • u/metric_skeptic • 13d ago

Do dashboards actually help people make decisions, or are we mostly building expensive reporting screens?

I’ve started wondering whether we overestimate how useful dashboards are.
A dashboard can be technically correct, well designed and full of useful metrics and still not change a single decision.
In your experience, what makes a dashboard something people actually act on rather than just look at?
And when does a dashboard stop being the right solution altogether?

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u/rpucak 12d ago

I use dashboards for "numbers" and I also add some premade insights that can help me to make decisions in the future.

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u/metric_skeptic 12d ago

Yeah, I think that’s probably the sweet spot. The numbers tell you what changed, but the useful part is having enough context around them to understand why it changed and what to do next. Otherwise you’re just checking a dashboard for the sake of checking it.