Dashboards, Widgets, & Rich Internet Applications: Drawing Parallels & Differences

by Ryan Goodman

This week I wanted to focus on Dashboards, Widgets, and everything else that we put into a bucket called Rich Internet Applications.

There is significant overlap in all three with specific distinctions making each unique. Hopefully I can paint a picture that makes it a little easier to understand.

Consistencies Among all 3

• Generally designed to incorporate an aesthetically pleasing UI.
• Some or most data originates from a server side process or web service.
• Enables some level of configuration or customization
• Implies some type of security model
• Provides a user interface paradigm that is intuitive and simple to navigate
• Besides on the desktop outside of an internet browser which enables a user experience that requires no screen refresh.
• Incorporates Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX or Flash.

Differences

Dashboards:

• Primarily focused on presenting quantitative measures, metrics, and analytics.
• Used to visualize the most recent information available.
• Provide enough information to drive action.
• Is usually embedded or integrated into another application or portal.

Widgets

• Designed to present one or few elements on the screen at one time using minimal screen real estate
• Presents the most important or frequently monitored information or drive common tasks.
• Usually embedded or wrapped around a client side framework.

RIA

• Built to for use as a standalone client application.
• Leverages operating system specific functions in addition to server side communication and data access.
  
  

What is a Dashboard?

by Ryan Goodman

What is a Dashboard? A Simple Definition
A dashboard in simple terms is a summarized visual representation of critical information required to make business decisions. This visual representation is typically presented on a computer screen as collection of charts, tables and other visuals that display trends, statistics, and measures.

We will compare a business dashboard to the dashboard in your car. The gauges in your vehicle show you a real time performance: How fast your going, how much gas you have left, the oil temperature, etc. The collective gauge cluster in your vehicle allows you to quickly asses how your car is performing while you drive. In essence, a business dashboard should serve the same general purpose: presenting the most current performance measures available for your to drive your business.

Why is a Dashboard Valuable?
A dashboard is valuable to any person within an organization who requires summarized information to make business decisions. This value is derived from time savings on multiple fronts:
- The time savings to gather, aggregate, and present all necessary information.
- The time savings for the business person to consume, digest, and make decisions.
There are also several benefits to dashboard solutions offered by software vendors, but they hinge on other aspects related to IT, which we will not dive into for this article.

So in Summary...
- Dashboards server to present a holistic view of one or multiple facets of your business: primarily related to performance.
- Dashboards should enable a business person to quickly assimilate to the information presented to make informed decisions quickly
- Dashboards streamline the process for gathering and manually aggregating data into a coherent presentation.