Tip #11: Building spreadsheet dashboards 101
If skimming is the new reading, then dashboards are the new data set. People want to zero in on small slices of information, rather than pouring over a vast set of data. Provide key insights using a carefully crafted dashboard for your spreadsheet.
Here are a few questions you can ask to get started:
What questions do you have about the data?
A dashboard is built mainly to serve one purpose: to make it easy for people to find the information they need. Let's say you have the Q2 sales records. These records contain the dates of transactions, sale values, items sold, and sales rep details.
Here are some key questions you might have about the data:
- Which rep has sold the most?
- Which items have been sold the most?
- Which month did we sell the most?
- Which items did each of these reps sell the most?
Keep your list of questions concise, and aim to create a dashboard that answers them effectively.
Is the dashboard interactive?
Make your dashboards exhaustive, yet concise, by making them interactive. Why? Because when an entire team views a spreadsheet, not everybody will be looking for the same insights from the data set. When you have too much information displayed on a dashboard, users will need to scroll up and down. Dashboards work best when users can view the entire dashboard without having to scroll at optimal zoom and view.
You can use a combination of checkboxes, picklists, If functions, filters, and Lookup functions to make your dashboards interactive. You can even maintain slices of the original data set in a hidden sheet to make it easy to retrieve them for your dashboard.
Are there visual representations of your data?
Make sure your dashboard is visually engaging. Add contextual charts, place sparklines next to your data, and color code your dashboards based on various conditions. Use the format painter to maintain a consistent design across your dashboard. Combined with interactivity, this makes your information stand out and ensures your dashboards are self-explanatory. Choosing the right chart type, properly formatting cells, and carefully arranging your data aren't simply aesthetic choices—they make your dashboard easier to understand.
Spreadsheets can be versatile. Zoho Sheet is feature rich, and can greatly enhance your spreadsheet and dashboard-creation experience. We hope you enjoy creating your interactive dashboards, and hope you'll share your favorite tips with us in the comments. Get hands on experience on the example spreadsheet dashboard used above.
Related links:
Creating interactive spreadsheets - https://zurl.co/HKP4
Format painting - https://zurl.co/Iqsc
Data validation - https://zurl.co/aC55
Charts and visualization - https://zurl.co/vc9G
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Tip #18: 6 Trendlines and when to use them in your spreadsheet data?
Charts are a great tool for visualizing and interpreting large chunks of data in spreadsheets. Zoho Sheet offers you 35+ chart options, along with AI-powered chart recommendations based on the data set you select. There are various chart elements thatTip #16: Ask Zia your data-related questions and get powerful insights
Zoho Sheet provides a variety of tools and functionalities to help you analyze your data from end to end. But what if you could analyze all your data sets with a single AI-powered tool? Meet Zia, our smart virtual assistant who will answer all your data-relatedTip #17: Easily share spreadsheets with non-Zoho account users
With efficient, collaboration-friendly options, Zoho Sheet is a popular choice among users. Sheet's external share links help you collaborate more effectively by sharing your spreadsheets with anyone outside your organization, including users who do notTip #7: Four things you didn't know you can do with Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting helps you highlight and visualize data in your spreadsheet based on provided rules. Zoho Sheet offers three types of conditional formatting: Classic, Color Scales, and Icon Sets. If you're already familiar with how Conditional Formatting works, here are some bonus tips for Classic formats: Customize rules with formulas Zoho Sheet allows you to create personalized rules based on formulas. For example, in a task list you can use customized formulas to highlight tasks which areTip #15: Stop guessing and start estimating with Zoho Sheet's Goal Seek
Goal Seek is an ideal spreadsheet tool for devising estimates, as it helps you retrieve your desired output value when the input values are not known. In other words, Goal Seek does back-solving to find input values once you've provided an output value.
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