Unit 12.04: The dashboard nobody opens twice

Most dashboards are opened once, and only one of the reasons is technical.

Six reasons, five of them design

Why a dashboard does not get opened a second time.

The code lists them with what the reader experiences.

REASONS = [
    ("no default view -- it opens empty",     "the reader has to work first"),
    ("loads in 14 seconds",                   "they stop waiting"),
    ("answers a question nobody has",         "built from available data, not a decision"),
    ("data is a week stale and unlabelled",   "trust goes once and does not return"),
    ("22 charts, no hierarchy",               "no idea where to look"),
    ("the number moved and nothing explains it", "they ask a person instead"),
]
print(f"{'why it is not opened again':44} what the reader experiences")
for reason, experience in REASONS:
    print(f"{reason:44} {experience}")

print("""
Only the second is a technical problem. The rest are design decisions made
without a decision to serve.

Measure it: if you cannot see who opened it last week, you cannot tell whether
any of this applies to yours.
""")

Only the load time is a technical problem. The rest are decisions made without a decision to serve: no default view, no hierarchy, a question nobody had, stale data with no label.

The last row is the one that matters most in practice. A number that moved with nothing explaining it sends the reader to a person, and once they have asked the person they will ask the person next time too.

The mistake this prevents

The mistake is not measuring usage. If you cannot see who opened it last week, you cannot tell whether any of this applies to yours - and the instinct is always that it does not.

Takeaway

Measure whether your dashboard is opened twice. Almost every reason it is not is a design decision, and the commonest is a number that moved with nothing explaining it.

Mark complete