If you want to develop a dashboard for your web application, begin by considering the requirements of a well-designed web application and how to implement them in enterprise dashboards. There exist millions of websites, each with its audience and purpose. However, all great ones differ in having: a clear purpose, intuitive navigation, and a reason for users to come back.
In this article, we will show you a guide on how you can start developing your dashboard for your web application. Let us take a look:
- What do we mean by dashboard?
- Why is it necessary to use a dashboard in your web application?
- How to design a dashboard focused on digital marketing?
- What are the sales dashboard metrics to consider?
- How to distribute and organize ideas to design a web dashboard?
- What mistakes to avoid when designing web dashboards?
- What is the most important factor to take into account to create an efficient dashboard?
1. What do we mean by dashboard?
It is a super powerful tool to get information from data and centralize the KPIs you need to know what is going on with your business. What a dashboard is, why it is a good idea to implement one in your company, and the main measures you should consider according to your goals.
A dashboard is an information management tool that monitors, analyzes, and visually displays key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and key data to track the status of a company, a department, a campaign, or a specific process.
We can think of the dashboard as a kind of overview that collects data from different sources in one place and presents it in a digestible way so that the most important things jump out at you. A well-executed dashboard gives your web development a better appearance, and also your web application in general.
1.1 What are the most important features of a dashboard?
Customized. A dashboard should contain only the KPIs that are relevant to the department, campaign, or process at hand. To guide it, we can think about the main questions we want to answer. For example, what are the main sources of traffic to our website or web application, how do our sales funnel work, or what are the 5 products that generate the most revenue?
Visual. The idea of a dashboard is that we can obtain the information we are looking for at a glance. Therefore, the data is presented in the form of graphs and we must have quick indicators through colored keys, up or down arrows, or highlighted figures, for example.
Practical. The main function of a dashboard should always be to guide the actions of our team. Therefore, it should provide us with the necessary information so that we can know what the next steps to follow to improve results are.
In real-time. Nowadays, digital marketing actions evolve very quickly, and taking advantage of the key moment is essential. Therefore, the information should be updated at the moment in all sources and displayed on the dashboard in real-time.
2. Why is it necessary to use a dashboard in your web application?
First, it allows you to measure multiple KPIs and metrics at the same time. If we manage campaigns of a certain complexity, we usually end up with several analytics solutions for each platform and have to consult them separately, which hinders the overall view. In contrast, the dashboard can show data collected from various sources. It makes our web application more harmonious.
Second, it is easy to understand. A good dashboard presents a handful of key metrics clearly and visually, so you do not need to be an analytics expert to understand it. If we want to dig deeper into a particular data set, we can always turn to more specific tools.
Third, it makes data easily accessible. If we have a dashboard automatically synchronized in the cloud, we can define multiple users so that the entire team can share the same data from anywhere. It is even possible to project the dashboard permanently on a display in the office so that the full staff can see what is happening in real-time.
Fourth, it makes reporting more efficient. Having a centralized dashboard is a huge time saver. Instead of having to collect scattered data from different sources and create your charts, dashboards do all the work for you. You only have to invest some time in the beginning, to set up the metrics and how to present them, and from then on the reports are generated automatically.
3. How to design a dashboard focused on digital marketing?
The answer depends on each case and each company since precisely one of the keys of the dashboard is customization. But as a guide, let us take a look at some of the key KPIs that may be of interest in a CRM or digital marketing dashboard.
The number of visitors to the brand’s websites. By itself, this metric is not very informative, since the visit is only the first step in the customer journey. Nonetheless, we are interested in having it monitored to know if we are succeeding in attracting users and if not, take the necessary steps to remedy it.
New and returning visitors. Here we begin to delve a little deeper into what is happening on our website and we can better understand visit patterns. In many cases, it will be necessary for a user to visit several times before converting.
Return on investment. This metric is the KPI par excellence, as it tells us whether the budget we are investing in marketing is paying off. To get the most out of it, we must be able to differentiate between channels, campaigns, and actions, discard those that fail to show a positive ROI, and focus the budget on the most profitable ones. It is better to focus on building customer loyalty to increase their lifetime value.
4. What are the sales dashboard metrics to consider?
Monthly sales growth. Typically, we set the checkpoints at the beginning and end of each month, as they allow us to better compare the data with each other. When setting up your dashboard, you can have the results displayed by comparing the last 30 days, the last calendar month, or the current month with the same month last year. Average sales margin.
The number of qualified leads for sales. The sales process usually starts when the marketing team sends the contact details of an opportunity. Tracking the number of leads sent will help us to better coordinate these two key departments of the company. Lead-to-sales conversion ratio. That means, how many of the contacts that have come to us during a given period have ended up becoming customers.
This KPI helps us to see whether we need to increase the number of leads received or to focus on strategies to improve conversion. Average purchase value. Since getting leads and converting them into customers has a high cost, we may want to track this data to see if the investment is proving profitable or if we need strategies to increase the size of the cart.
Monthly contacts from each sales rep (calls, emails sent). A metric oriented to supervise the team and monitor productivity. Also sales by contact method. This metric allows us to know which the most effective means to achieve conversions are: calls, emails, and in-person visits. To focus efforts on those that result in more profitability. Best-selling products. A comparison between the volume of sales obtained by a product and its commercial margin can also provide an interesting comparison.
5. How to distribute and organize ideas to design a web dashboard?
A web-based dashboard can access through a web or mobile browser and view alongside other websites and services such as email, social networks, news sites, blogs, and more. In other words, users log into a web dashboard with the same expectations as with any other website. This has important implications when designing a dashboard.
It has to have a clear purpose. Dashboard users must be able to log on to your dashboard and immediately understand what they are looking at. To achieve this, you need some visualizations that simplify complex data into manageable chunks. Like metrics segmentation, white space helps web visitors read and find information. The right visuals help dashboard users immediately understand what they see.
The tendency for both web pages and a web dashboard tends to give too much or not enough information. One suggestion is to create a dashboard that shows the key metrics that summarize your data. And use additional tabs to give users more ways to drill down into your data. We also recommend that it be easy to navigate. A web dashboard makes an excellent business intelligence tool, but it becomes important that users can navigate through all of this data to get real, actionable information.
A web dashboard provides users with navigation tools similar to any other website, with hyperlinks or navigation tabs. Web users get used to clicking on links to get more information. That is why hyperlinks can refer users to an external site, generate a new tab with the data they have requested, or drill down further.
5.1 What other things to consider when developing an eye-catching web dashboard?
Give users a reason to come back. A web dashboard, like a successful website, compels users to log in daily or hourly to view the latest information. The purpose of business dashboards serves to increase visibility into key metrics and business-critical data. Dashboard users have a vested interest in the metrics being displayed, and you can use that to your advantage.
Web users come conditioned to expect something new every time they visit a website, whether it is to see the latest status updates on Facebook, respond to an email in Gmail, or see the latest news. Having a web dashboard makes it ideal for displaying real-time data, especially if that data changes frequently.
Also, consider design and ROI. Ideally, a business dashboard provides some return on investment (ROI). It helps to recognize that dashboard ROI is often more qualitative than quantitative. In other words, a dashboard can help you make better and more informed decisions. The best indicator of a high ROI for a web dashboard looks at the frequency with which users log on to your dashboard.
If the login frequency remains high, then you know that the dashboard provides value to your audience. The most important factor in creating a great dashboard is understanding your audience. Even if you adhere to the best practices of web design and data visualizations, the most important tool at your disposal comes from user feedback. They will tell you what they want and what works.
6. What mistakes to avoid when designing web dashboards?
Navigation in a dashboard is not just about getting from point A to point B, it is about providing a consistent set of visual elements so that users can easily digest the information in each dashboard tab they view. This can be done by presenting similar data using similar visual elements.
We have to avoid creating a single dashboard for everyone when the problems of each area differ. Ultimately, try to have your CRM or dashboard synchronized in a cloud-based service, in this way you can state multiple users to share the same data from different places.
Do not add comparison values, otherwise, customers will not know which step to follow. Inefficient designs prevent us from finding the information we need. Use of incorrect graphics. For example, pie charts generally do not look good on a dashboard.
Also, watch out for the incorrect use of colors. This is an element that can become a distractor. We must also make people make mental calculations, we want to make the visualization easier, not that they do not understand what is being represented.
7. What is the most important factor to take into account to create an efficient dashboard?
The most important factor we on Connect Tech consider in creating an excellent dashboard is understanding your audience. Even if you adhere to the best practices of web design and data visualizations. The most important tool at your disposal is user feedback. They will tell you what they want and what works.
Knowing all this, do you still have doubts about how to design a good dashboard? Do not worry, Connect Tech is ready to answer your questions. Just call us at +971 43 316 688 or send us an e-mail at contact@connectech.dev and we will be happy to assist you.
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