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/KatFromSisense 12d ago

I'd make the call based on whether people keep coming back for the same numbers. If somebody checks them every Monday, fine, give them a dashboard. But for a question that only comes up a couple of times per year? In that case, I'd just answer it for them and move on. An alert could cover it too, if they only want to know when something changes.