GIS Tool: Dashboards
/Just like a dashboard in a car, an online dashboard contains several indicators, gauges, and other elements that let you see what’s happening on a particular topic at a glance. If the dashboard is good, it will also contain a map.
A dashboard gives you a snapshot evaluation of different indicators.
In Episode 17 of the podcast, we talked about two different software products with which you can create dashboards. Tableau dashboards are widely used. These are great dashboards, but are limited in terms of the mapping capabilities. See this example from the Puget Sound Partnership’s website. Tableau does have a free offering, and I’ve been meaning to test it out more...
If you are new to GIS and dashboards, these are great to try out, but a tool I prefer is Esri’s Operations Dashboard, which is one of the offerings through ArcGIS Online. Operations Dashboard is typically used to show information in real time, but it can be used for data that changes less frequently as well.
I wish someone would compile this information into a dashboard!
With an Operations Dashboard, you can show maps, charts, graphs, lists, and more, but most importantly, these elements can interact with each other. For instance, if you zoom in on the map, the graphs and charts can update to just show the statistics from the area shown on the map. There is a small learning curve to start building dashboards, but it’s pretty intuitive. Esri posted a helpful blog post with useful links to videos, tutorials, examples, and more. You can also start at their help page. See even more examples here!
Have you seen or created any cool dashboards? Share them in the comments!
dashboards can combine maps and data to display information in infographic and informative ways! We love dashboards, so should you!