Dashboard Blocks
A dashboard is made of blocks. Each shows one thing — a number, a chart, a list, a shortcut.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Dashboards:
- Custom Dashboard Blocks — the blocks themselves
- Dashboard Styles — the styling applied to them
- Shared Dashboard Layout — the arrangement shared across users
- BI Dashboards — the query-driven alternative
What a block can be
Several display types are available — counters, charts, lists and others — each configured against a datastore with its own criteria. A block library holds ones you have built so they can be reused rather than recreated.
A dashboard is for deciding, not for looking
The principle that separates a useful dashboard from a decorative one. Every block should answer a question somebody acts on.
The test for each: what would somebody do differently if this number changed? If there is no answer, the block is decoration — and decoration crowds out the blocks that matter.
Six or eight blocks
A dashboard people scan in a few seconds is used daily. One requiring scrolling and study is opened once and abandoned, and the good blocks on it are lost with the rest.
Put the most important thing top left
People read from there and frequently no further. If one number matters more than the others, it goes there — and if everything is equally important, the dashboard has no point of view.
A number needs a comparison
"47 open cases" means nothing on its own. Against a target, against last week, or against a threshold that changes its colour, it becomes actionable.
Where you cannot supply a comparison, ask whether the number is worth showing.
Blocks cost something to draw
Each queries data when the dashboard loads. A dashboard of twelve blocks over large datastores is twelve queries every time anybody opens it, which on a landing page is a great deal of work.
Keep criteria tight and the block count sensible — and see the performance guidance in the Business Intelligence dashboards article, which applies equally here.
Reuse from the library
Rather than rebuilding a similar block per dashboard. One definition means one place to correct it when the underlying model changes.
Permissions apply per viewer
A block shows each person what they are allowed to see, so the same dashboard legitimately shows different numbers to different people. That is correct and worth explaining before somebody reports it as a bug.
Worked example
A service desk dashboard carries six blocks: open cases against target, cases breaching today, unassigned, this week's volume against last week's, a list of the oldest five, and a shortcut to log a new one. Every block prompts an action, and the team opens it every morning.
Recommendations
- Ask what somebody would do differently for every block.
- Six to eight blocks, most important top left.
- Give every number a comparison.
- Reuse from the library rather than rebuilding.