Dashboards often fail because they overwhelm users, lack actionable insights, or don’t align with team workflows. When ignored, they lead to missed issues, higher costs, and inefficiencies. The solution? Simplify designs, tailor dashboards to roles, and integrate them into daily routines. Here’s how to fix common problems:
To make dashboards useful, keep them simple, role-specific, and part of regular work reviews. Use feedback, update metrics quarterly, and align dashboards with business goals. This approach transforms dashboards into tools teams rely on daily.
Dashboards are often created, shared, and expected to be the go-to resource for teams. But in reality, their usage stats often tell a very different story. Here are five common reasons why dashboards fail to engage users.
A dashboard crammed with dozens of charts and metrics can overwhelm users. Research suggests the sweet spot for dashboard visualisations is between five and nine. Go beyond that, and users are less likely to engage with all the data. Imagine an engineer faced with 20 charts covering everything from memory usage to network latency. They’ll likely skim for glaring issues, leaving subtle patterns or early warnings unnoticed.
Picture this: your dashboard shows a CPU usage spike to 85%. What now? Without context or actionable insights, this spike is just another number. Dashboards should empower users to act, not just highlight historical trends. If the data doesn’t point towards a decision or an action, it risks being ignored entirely.
Cluttered layouts, chaotic colour schemes, and disorganised charts can make dashboards frustrating to use. When visualisations are crammed together without proper spacing, users struggle to process the information. Similarly, ignoring standard conventions - like using red for issues and green for healthy performance - creates unnecessary confusion. Logical arrangement and clear design are essential to ensure users can quickly grasp the data and take action.
A one-size-fits-all dashboard rarely works. Different roles need different insights. For instance, a CTO and a frontend developer don’t need the same metrics. When dashboards mix irrelevant data for multiple audiences, users disengage. Tailoring dashboards to show only the most relevant information for each role keeps the content focused and useful.
Constant notifications for minor changes can lead to alert fatigue. When every fluctuation is flagged with the same urgency, it becomes impossible to distinguish critical issues from background noise. Over time, teams start ignoring alerts altogether, even the important ones. Outdated thresholds and excessive notifications erode trust in the system, reducing dashboard engagement.
When these problems combine - information overload, poor design, irrelevant data, and excessive alerts - they turn dashboards into tools people avoid rather than rely on. The good news? Thoughtful design, role-specific customisation, and smarter alert systems can breathe new life into your dashboards, making them genuinely useful for your team’s workflow.
To ensure your dashboards are more than just decorative screens, design them intentionally to meet the specific needs of your team’s daily operations.
The best dashboards are easy to understand and focus on the essentials. Stick to a handful of key visualisations and highlight the most important data points that align with your team’s objectives. Eliminate anything that doesn’t serve a purpose - clutter only distracts.
"Effective dashboards should not only present data but also convey the story behind it, guiding users toward making informed decisions without overwhelming them with details." - UX Design World
Consistency is key. Use standard fonts, colours, and formatting to keep things clean and professional. Stick to familiar conventions - red for issues, green for good performance, and amber for warnings. For financial figures, use UK formatting: £1,234.56 instead of $1,234.56 or €1.234,56. Group related metrics together, leave plenty of white space, and use plain, straightforward language. For example, swap out technical terms like "HTTP 5xx errors per minute" for something more user-friendly, such as "Server errors per minute."
Once you’ve simplified your dashboards, customise them to suit the roles of individual team members.
Dashboards are most effective when they’re tailored to the specific needs of each user. Role-based dashboards allow team members to focus on the metrics and KPIs that are most relevant to their responsibilities. For instance, 88.2% of professionals at SaaS companies rely on dashboards to track and evaluate their marketing performance.
Work closely with team leads to identify the data each role requires. Take a digital agency as an example: account managers might need dashboards showing client project statuses and budget usage, developers might track deployment frequency and error rates, and leadership might focus on overall profitability and team utilisation. Customising dashboards in this way ensures that everyone has the context they need to make informed decisions.
When selecting metrics, focus on those that drive action. Stick to KPIs that align directly with your company’s goals and strategy.
Beyond customisation, adding smart alerts can take your dashboards to the next level.
Smart alerts can turn your dashboards into dynamic tools that actively support your team’s work. Instead of triggering an alert for every minor fluctuation (like CPU usage hitting 70%), set up thresholds that require sustained activity before notifying the team. For example, you could configure a warning at 75% usage sustained over 10 minutes and a critical alert at 85% sustained over 5 minutes.
Tools like Datadog can integrate with your dashboards to provide contextual alerts. When an alert is triggered, make sure it links directly to the relevant dashboard view with the appropriate timeframe. Automation can also play a role - for instance, automatically scaling resources when error rates spike or initiating escalation workflows when persistent issues arise.
Finally, to ensure dashboards remain relevant, make them part of your team’s regular routines.
Dashboards are most effective when they’re embedded into daily workflows rather than being checked sporadically. Regular reviews encourage consistent engagement and help teams identify trends or issues before they escalate.
Weekly health checks are a great way to review key metrics, discuss trends, and flag areas for deeper analysis. Incident post-mortems should include a review of dashboard data to evaluate whether alerts worked as intended and to refine thresholds or metrics as needed. Even daily standups can include quick updates from dashboards without dragging out the meeting. Monthly reviews, on the other hand, help ensure the metrics displayed remain aligned with shifting team goals and business priorities.
When teams see value in their dashboards from the start, they’re far more likely to keep using them. In fact, users who find value in their first session are 2.6 times more likely to continue using dashboards regularly.
For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in digital agencies, SaaS, and EdTech, turning dashboards from overlooked screens into must-have tools takes a focused approach. These steps build on earlier strategies to make dashboards a key part of your daily operations. By applying these practical tips, you can transform dashboards into tools your team relies on every day.
Cluttered dashboards are less useful. To keep them relevant, conduct a quarterly review to eliminate widgets and metrics that don't drive decisions. Focus on the three most important KPIs for each topic. For instance, a SaaS company might prioritise monthly recurring revenue, churn rate, and customer acquisition cost, while ignoring vanity metrics that don’t influence business outcomes.
Collaborate with subject-matter experts to determine what data truly matters for each role. A project manager at a digital agency doesn’t need to see server CPU usage, just as a developer doesn’t need detailed client billing data. Tailoring dashboards to specific roles ensures they serve a clear purpose instead of trying to cover everything for everyone.
Before adding new metrics, create a roadmap to evaluate their relevance and scalability. Ask yourself: "Will this metric change how we operate?" If the answer is no, it’s better left out. Overloading dashboards with unnecessary data can make them overwhelming and, ultimately, ignored.
Dashboards are most effective when they’re deeply integrated into daily workflows. Link them directly to operational processes, such as incident response. When an alert goes off, the dashboard should provide not only the issue but also the context needed to address it quickly. For example, one SaaS company reduced churn by 12% by using real-time onboarding metrics to identify drop-off points and introduce guided tutorials.
Dashboards can also improve cost management by connecting spending data to specific projects or clients. An eCommerce brand, for instance, cut shipping delays by 18% by using dashboard insights to pinpoint issues in one warehouse and reallocate inventory. Similarly, digital agencies can track AWS costs by client project to catch budget overruns early, protecting profitability.
Regularly review dashboards with stakeholders to ensure the data remains relevant and actionable. These brief check-ins encourage discussions about what the metrics reveal and help teams decide on next steps. Striking the right balance between broad visibility and tailored views for specific teams is crucial.
To boost engagement, decide when to use shared dashboards and when to create role-specific ones. Successful SMBs often use both approaches strategically. Shared dashboards are ideal for company-wide metrics like overall system health, revenue performance, or customer satisfaction. They promote transparency and show how different teams contribute to larger business goals.
On the other hand, role-specific dashboards focus on the metrics that matter most to individual teams. For example, sales, marketing, finance, support, customer success, and development teams can each have tailored dashboards displaying KPIs relevant to their daily tasks.
"Don't build a SaaS dashboard in a silo. Consult with department subject-matter experts to determine the data each role needs." - Austin Caldwell, Senior Product Marketing Manager, NetSuite
The best approach combines both types: a shared dashboard for high-level visibility and role-specific dashboards for detailed insights. For example, a shared view might show overall company performance, while role-specific dashboards dive into team-specific KPIs. Allowing some customisation within role-based dashboards can further boost engagement, as team members feel the tool is designed specifically for their needs.
Dashboards should be dynamic tools that grow and adapt alongside your business. By regularly tracking metrics, gathering feedback, and ensuring alignment with your business goals, you can maximise their value and usability. Let’s explore how to measure success, act on feedback, and tie dashboards to your strategic objectives.
To determine whether your dashboards are effective, you need to measure their impact. Metrics like views, clicks, time spent, satisfaction, and conversion rates can help gauge engagement and performance.
For example, weekly active users reflect how consistently a dashboard is being used. A drop in activity after an initial spike often signals that the dashboard isn’t offering enough value to justify repeat visits. Another key metric is alert response time - an effective dashboard should enable faster incident responses, not slow them down.
Different roles often require tailored metrics to evaluate dashboard success:
| Role | Key Success Metrics |
|---|---|
| Developers | Deployment frequency, build/test success rates, pull request cycle time |
| Operations Teams | System uptime, error rates, CPU/memory utilisation, MTTR |
| Executives | Cloud spend trends, cost per deployment, ROI indicators |
"Dashboard success is defined by its ability to provide clear insights and aid decision-making. Measure success by user engagement, such as regular usage and positive feedback." - Daniel Kofi Sarkodie Duah, Transformation & Partnerships Manager @ iRisk
Grouping metrics by team or service can also help pinpoint which sections of your dashboard offer the most value.
Consistent feedback is crucial for keeping dashboards relevant and effective. However, gathering actionable feedback requires a thoughtful approach. Make it easy for users to share their thoughts and ask for feedback when the experience is still fresh.
Long-term users often provide the most insightful feedback since they’re familiar with your systems and can identify meaningful improvements. Use a centralised system to organise feedback and tag responses for recurring themes. This helps prioritise fixes or updates that will have the greatest impact.
"If feedback isn't centralised, it's lost. And with it, you lose the opportunity to understand and solve customer problems." - Valentin Hunag, CEO at Harvestr.io
Combine user feedback with analytics data to get a clearer picture. Sometimes, what users say they want doesn’t match their actual behaviour, so pairing feedback with usage data can better inform your decisions.
One company tackled data accuracy issues by adding a feedback widget to their dashboard. Users could report inaccuracies through a simple two-question survey, enabling the team to resolve issues quickly while building trust and showing the impact of user input.
"Ask the right questions at the right stage of the user journey to make unsolicited customer feedback purposeful and actionable." - Emilia Korczynska, VP of Marketing at Userpilot
Beyond feedback, dashboards should directly support your business objectives. Metrics aligned with goals like cost control, scalability, or uptime make dashboards more than just data displays - they become tools for action and growth.
Start by defining your business goals and identifying the metrics to track them. Involve team members from different departments to ensure everyone understands how their work connects to larger objectives. For example, aligning dashboards with customer retention goals can have a direct impact on profitability.
"Dashboard success is defined by clear alignment with business objectives and user needs." - Seema Dabas, MIS Reporting
Regularly review dashboards with stakeholders to ensure they continue to meet their needs and adapt to any new priorities. Adjust goals during customer check-ins to stay aligned with changing business strategies. Automating data refreshes can keep dashboards up-to-date without requiring manual input, but remember that automation should assist decision-making, not replace it.
"Creating dashboards is an ongoing process of improvement and adaptation. Regularly review and refine your dashboards to ensure they align with your business goals and strategy. Solicit feedback from stakeholders and users, incorporating their suggestions." - Iain White, Tech Consultant & Fractional CTO
Dashboards don’t have to sit unused or overlooked. With 96% of companies relying on at least one public cloud service, effective monitoring is a must for SMB cloud teams. These teams often need to make quick decisions without the luxury of the extensive resources available to larger enterprises.
To get the most out of your dashboards, focus on creating designs that drive action. Keep things simple, tailor the metrics to fit specific roles, and eliminate unnecessary clutter so the dashboards align with your business goals.
Take, for instance, a UK-based e-commerce SMB that introduced role-specific dashboards. These dashboards tracked critical metrics like transaction speed, error rates, and uptime. The results? A 30% drop in downtime and happier customers. Weekly stand-up meetings ensured the dashboards stayed relevant, with issues being addressed quickly.
As outlined earlier, the key lies in combining clarity, customisation, and seamless integration into daily workflows. Smart alerts and automation can help reduce the burden of manual monitoring and filter out irrelevant noise. Dashboards should deliver insights that are tailored to each team’s needs - developers, for example, benefit from metrics that align with their workflows, while operations teams rely on indicators like system uptime and error rates.
Modern systems make customisation easier than ever, offering tailored views and even AI-powered predictive analytics. Regularly audit your dashboards to weed out irrelevant data, involve users to identify what each role truly needs, and refine based on feedback and measurable outcomes.
And don’t forget the details: display costs in pounds sterling (e.g. £1,000.00), use day/month/year formats for dates (e.g. 17/07/2025), and stick to metric units for measurements. A well-crafted dashboard isn’t just a tool - it’s a driving force for smarter decisions and better results.
When deciding which metrics to track, zero in on those that directly support your team's cloud operations and business objectives. Focus on metrics that provide practical insights, like performance levels, error rates, or resource consumption, ensuring they align with your team's unique requirements.
Steer clear of overcrowding your dashboard with unnecessary metrics that don't drive decisions or add value. Keeping your dashboards focused and uncluttered will help avoid information overload, making them easier to navigate and more impactful. By honing in on the metrics that matter most, you can turn your dashboards into an essential resource for your team.
To seamlessly integrate dashboards into everyday workflows, the emphasis should be on making them useful and actionable. Begin by tailoring the data to align with the specific decisions your team needs to make. Highlight the most important metrics, ensuring they’re easy to understand and directly connected to each team member’s responsibilities. Think of dashboards as the control panel of a car - providing real-time insights that allow users to monitor progress and make quick adjustments when needed.
To maximise their impact, weave dashboards into established routines like daily stand-ups or weekly reviews. This way, they naturally become part of the team’s rhythm. Keep the design clean and updates frequent to avoid overwhelming users with too much information. When dashboards are clear and practical, they shift from being just another tool to an essential part of decision-making.
To keep alert fatigue at bay while ensuring that critical problems get the attention they deserve, it's essential to prioritise alerts by their severity and relevance. Begin by setting clear thresholds for what qualifies as a critical event, and fine-tune these settings to cut down on unnecessary noise.
Automation can take care of routine notifications, freeing up your team to focus on more pressing matters. Make sure alerts are actionable by including concise, clear descriptions that outline the next steps. Additionally, let team members adjust their notification preferences, so they only see alerts that align with their specific responsibilities. This way, the team can concentrate on the most urgent tasks without feeling overwhelmed.