Visual KPI Dashboards are the personalized (or role-based, asset-based, etc.) view of your most important information, using the visualizations you prefer, customized if you want, and arranged on the screen as you choose. You can add any Visual KPI visualization or object (KPI, chart, table, group, embedded content, trend, etc.) to a Dashboard, arrange and resize them, and even add custom images, static or dynamic text blocks, and links.
You can have as many dashboards as you want, and they can belong to one or more profiles (creating different profiles). Having different profiles and Dashboards helps you organize your information based on anything from geographic locations, sites, departments or even employee roles. The possibilities are endless.
Switch Between Dashboards
You can give each Dashboard a different name and description. This makes it easy to switch between dashboards.
Use the “Pin to Bookmark Bar” icon () to add quick links to any dashboard. You can also link to Dashboards from other places in Visual KPI, such as links on any object or links right on a dashboard.
Set Dashboard Properties
You’ll name your Dashboards and give them descriptions in Dashboard Properties. Whenever you create a new Dashboard or customize an existing Dashboard, you can edit the name and description.
Open Customize Dashboard
- Click the cog icon under your company logo to open the Dashboard customizer.
- Click Customize Dashboard or add a New Dashboard.
Organize your Dashboard
You can arrange your Dashboard to suit your needs. Place KPIs that you use often or need to see immediately at the top. Make KPIs larger or smaller in size.
Organizing your Dashboard is like putting together a puzzle. The Dashboard designer has a few predefined sizes and options, so when you resize and move objects they will snap into place on your Dashboard. But you get to decide how the puzzle looks.
Note: Don’t forget to click Save at the bottom of the Customize Dashboard panel or click the green checkmark at the top of the panel once you have customized your Dashboard.
Resize a KPI
The available sizes of your KPIs can vary based on type. For example, a geo map or KPI list must be at least 50 percent the width of your Dashboard (and up to 100 percent width), whereas a chart, trend, text or image widget can be as small as 25 percent the Dashboard width. KPI Dashboard widgets can range from 25 to 50 percent width.
The same applies to height. The geo-map requires more width and height, but that bullet chart can be small enough that you can fit four of them across the top of your Dashboard. Some Dashboard objects can expand to 8 times (8x) the original height.
Drag the lower-right corner to resize a KPI. Drag right or left to make it wider or narrower. Drag up or down to change height. Or do it the easy way and drag in or out to resize width and height at the same time.
Move a KPI
Drag and drop the KPI into place. As you move the KPI around the Dashboard, other KPIs will move over to make room.
Delete a KPI
While you’re customizing your dashboard, you can delete any objects you don’t want to see.
Find the object you want to delete, and click the X in the upper right corner of the KPI.
Select a KPI Visualization
Some objects have multiple possible visualizations and information that can be displayed directly on the Dashboard. When available, you can select the visualization(s) and information you want to see on your Dashboard.
Note: at the time this article was published, only single KPI blocks have this option (more in the future).
To show visualizations and information on your Dashboard, select an object. A green, dashed border appears around the selected KPI.
Select the options you want to display. For example, for a temperature KPI, you may want to see visualizations. In the image below, all options are selected and will appear in the KPI Block on the Dashboard.
In another example, we’ll show only the actual pressure of another KPI.
Note that in the image below, none of the options are selected.
Click Apply and click the green checkmark to save your customized Dashboard.
Note: If you make changes to a visualization or information selection and do not click Apply, a red border will appear around the KPI to show that you have not saved your changes.
Once you Apply your selections, here’s what you’ll see on your Dashboard: the Pressure KPI only shows the statistic, or current pressure reading, while the Temp shows additional visualizations along with the current temperature reading.
Add new objects to your Dashboard
You get to decide what visualizations appear on your Dashboard. Choose your most important and put it front and center on your Dashboard. When you are on any screen other than the Dashboard, the cog icon will give you the option to add whatever you are viewing to your Dashboard.
To add a new visualization:
- Navigate to the KPI or visualization you want to add to your Dashboard.
- Click the cog icon under your company logo.
- Click Add to Dashboard.
You’ll get a message telling you the visualization has been added to your Dashboard, along with a Click here message to customize your Dashboard.
Or you can click Dashboard on the Visual KPI menu, and then click the cog icon again to get the Customize Dashboard option.
Add a Custom Time Range
By default, Visual KPI allows you to put objects on your dashboard that each have their own time range. You can even put the same object multiple times, each with it’s own range. And you can toggle back and forth in time to view data.
Alternatively, you can give your entire dashboard a time range and lock all of the objects on it to the same range. This also lets you control the dashboard as one single object, even though the information may be coming from multiple sources of data, etc.
- Use the Time Range Picker in the upper-right corner of the Dashboard to bind the dashboard to a range. By default, no time range is selected.
- Select a default or custom time range. All data related to time will display on your Dashboard based on this range.
- Use the time range paddles <> to advance or regress the time range. For example, if you selected a 60-day time range, the advance paddle will show KPI data for the following 60-day period.
Note: The time range in this example only shows on the list view. The Geo Map does not have an associated time range because it is associated with the current value.
Add a Group Rollup to your Dashboard
If you want to add a Group rollup visualization to your Dashboard right from the visualization.
- Use the More information icon to access the Group details panel.
- Then you can click Add Group to Dashboard from the panel.
Learn more
Add a Link Widget to Your Visual KPI Dashboard
Add Text and Images to Your Visual KPI Dashboard
Enroll in the Visual KPI End-User Training to learn more about all of the customizations you can do with your Dashboards.