"...a panel facing the pilot of an aircraft, containing instruments and controls" is how the Oxford Dictionary defines a dashboard as.
Now, consider yourself as the pilot and the aircraft as your organization. Wouldn't you rather begin your work day by drawing insights from a visually engaging, single screen dashboard rather than sifting through reports and spreadsheets? Or even better, wouldn't you prefer to keep a tab on the happenings of the day on a near real time basis, for every aspect that you are responsible for, without having to be dependent on IT or line managers?
If your answer is in the affirmative, then you would benefit from a map-based dashboard. These maps are easily configurable i.e. you can have it designed in a way most useful for you to understand the data you want to track for arriving at decisions.
Map based Dashboards can be of several types. Some can be developed for a particular use, while others can be developed for daily monitoring purposes. Alternatively, some can be prepared for consumption within the organization, while others can be prepared to inform external stakeholders such as customers, community or investors. For this article, the dashboards have been segregated basis the type of objectives they help fulfill.
(P.S. Click on the images to access the dashboard.)
1. Informational Dashboards
These kind of dashboards help you derive meaning from large and complex geo-datasets in a visually engaging manner.
Situation: Consider yourself as an international immigration consultant who looking to understand human migration patterns around the globe, through a stretch of time. You've got hold of the data-set and want to derive insights from it.
Exploring tips: Hit the pause button to change the countries and to compare inbound / outbound migration. Click on the colored lines on the globe to see information for that particular route. Try changing the map to 2D mode to see a different, wider view. Also, change the year and observe the pattern. Notice the pop-ups on the screen which shows more information about the object you are selecting.
Liked this? See a similar dashboard for major service request types by neighborhoods in NYC here.
2. Operations Dashboards
These kind of dashboards are useful for monitoring the business operations (project status, asset tracking, performance levels of resources etc.) on a near real time basis.
Situation: While this, simple to understand, dashboard shows the quality readings of various water bodies within a particular region, you can use this concept to think of situations where you wish to integrate various readings (by humans or by sensors) and incorporate it in a map view so that you can remained updated on critical parameters on a near real time basis thereby enabling you to take quick action.
Exploring tips: Click on the sites towards the left to see their respective readings. You can also open the filter panel which is hidden towards the extreme left and alter the parameters as per your liking to reflect an updated map view.
Liked this? See a Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) used to visualize and Cell towers, Access points, Report Outages across the United States here.
3. Tactical Dashboards
These kinds of dashboards help in planning purposes and towards achieving a particular objective vis-à-vis historical benchmarks, competition, future objectives etc.
Situation: This example assists Starbucks in achieving the objective to locate its coffee shops (new site selection) optimally to bolster its reach as well as to counter its competition in New York City. You can understand the concept at work here and think of use cases for various scenarios applicable to you.
Exploring tips: Change the base-map to 'light or dark gray canvas' from the small icon on the top right. Zoom in the map till you see the Starbucks logo clearly. Click on any of the Starbucks icon, one Red icon as well as one Blue icon and see the information it captures. Also, click on any blank area on the map to see the information that point captures (The demographic and income levels of that region). You must have also noticed that the map view can be changed as per the timeline you wish to observe and compare with the competition.
Liked this? See this dashboard used for monitoring global active fires and hotspots over the last 48 hours. Such dashboards are widely used, even in India now, to understand regional crime patterns and to allocate policing resources, among other law enforcement applications.
4. Strategic Dashboards
As the name suggests, these dashboards serve a strategic purpose i.e. it helps to see the big picture of a situation alongside the individual components which help build it.
Situation: Put yourself in the shoes of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Being a UN designated body responsible for international public health, it is in a tight corner for its handling of the virus pandemic. Without a doubt, they must be following this kind of a live dashboard closely.
Exploring tips: Zoom in the map first and then click on a country of your choice from the widget on the left. Then proceed to toggle different views just below the map extent (Cumulative confirmed cases, active cases, hospitalization rate etc.). You can explore the data at various levels too (depending on the map extent). For example, you can visualize India virus data at a country level as well as at the state level. Also notice, how the view across the dashboard dynamically changes to accommodate the new data basis the choice of country you have made.
Liked this? Explore another strategic dashboard, for Ocean Health Index scores & trends here.
ABOUT US
Intelloc Mapping Services | Mapmyops is engaged in providing mapping solutions to organizations which facilitate operations improvement, planning & monitoring workflows. These include but are not limited to Supply Chain Design Consulting, Drone Solutions, Location Analytics & GIS Applications, Site Characterization, Remote Sensing, Security & Intelligence Infrastructure, & Polluted Water Treatment. Projects can be conducted pan-India and overseas.
Several demonstrations for these workflows are documented on our website. For your business requirements, reach out to us via email - projects@mapmyops.com or book a paid consultation (video meet) from the hyperlink placed at the footer of the website's landing page.
Regards,
(Cover Image is an operations dashboard built on Esri platform)