What is a dashboard in analytics? What features should your analytics platform provide if you want to create ideal dashboards for all team members? And finally, what does a real-life analytic dashboard look like?
A dashboard is a selection of metrics with graphical representation that you want to monitor and analyze continuously or frequently. Anyone who has access can take a quick look at a single screen with graphs, diagrams, bar charts and get a good grasp of what’s going on with the product (its metrics and users). A dashboard reminds of a patient monitor that you can find in ICUs — it’s a collection of vital health metrics that can be used by a doctor to monitor a patient's condition.
For example, a dashboard can help you to:
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Fast and easy access to data.
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Analyze product data in real time.
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Take immediate actions when something abnormal is detected.
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Monitor KPIs.
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Keep all information in one place.
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Save time.
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Motivate employees to achieve their goals.
etc.
On the Devtodev analytics platform, dashbord creation looks as follows:
Read more: How to Integrate an Analytics System into your Game
Vital Features of an Ideal Dashboard
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Flexibility. Everybody involved should have a possibility to create their own dashboard containing the metrics that they choose. In the meantime, you want to set a specific view and update permissions so that the end users can’t mess with the widgets. If you want to change the position of a certain widget, you don’t have to redo the entire dashboard — you can just drag and drop.
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Broad selection of metrics. Managers need access to monetization metrics, analysts want to keep close eye on retention and engagement metrics, etc.
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It’s easy to create and use. The whole process needs to be user-friendly and intuitive because you don’t want to waste time on reading manuals.
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It’s easy to share and screen share. Sharing a link has to be done with one click while screen sharing for in-person meetings should be as simple as it gets.
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You can add your notes to it. You can add a comment that will explain something to your colleagues or remind you of something important.
Read more: Best Game Analytics Platform: devtodev vs DeltaDNA
What Reports and Widgets to Use
The choice of widgets depends entirely on your needs. For example, when you need to routinely track monetization metrics, you can create a dashboard with monetization metrics for the selected apps (gross, ARPU, paying conversion, time to conversion, conversion to second subscription, etc).
If you want to build a report that shows performance of apps’ audience acquisition channels, you can add some widgets to one dashboard and they will show the current traffic status. For example:
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a table for analyzing the most important metrics by traffic sources: new users, gross, paying conversion, ARPU, day 1 retention, day 7 retention, and so on;
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a diagram that shows new user acquisition performance by app;
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and other widgets that help you analyze channel performance.
This is how it may look:
Let’s Create a Dashboard
Now let’s look at the process of creating a dashboard using the devtodev analytics platform.
1. Open your Space or app. Click ‘Dashboards’ -> ‘Create new dashboard’.
2. Add saved reports from the Basic metrics, Custom events, Conversion funnels, SQL, or create new ones.
3. And actually that’s it!
Your reports and widgets will appear on the dashboard. After the dashboard has been created, you are free to add up to 20 widgets to it — simply click ‘Add widget’ in the hamburger menu of the dashboard in the top right corner.
Read more: Retention is Dropping - What to Do?
Some Useful Actions
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You can customize each widget (change it, add description, rename it, move, or copy).
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You can manage permissions (editor, viewer, owner).
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When building a report, you can save it straight to the dashboard.
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You can comment on your own or a shared dashboard. Also, you can mention a colleague and they will receive a bell and email notification.
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Change the date range of all widgets at a time.
Data is what your web product performance and business decisions rely on. Data works if you track it and use it. Dashboards help you and your entire team become data-driven and reap the benefits.
