The 13 Types of Displays That Are All (Unfortunately) Called Dashboards

Is it O.K. to put filters on dashboards? Should all dashboards “tell a story”? Does everything need to fit on one screen? Experts have been arguing over these and many other basic dashboard design best practice questions for years. After designing dashboards for over 50 large organizations, I now believe that much of this controversy arises from the fact that people use “dashboard” to refer to at least 13 fundamentally different types of information displays –without realizing it. By proposing a taxonomy of dashboard types and recognizing that most "dashboard design best practices" only apply to a few of those types, we can move past much of the controversy and have far more productive dashboard design best practices discussions.