Excel and PowerPoint are the traditional means of delivering results to clients, but dashboards allow you to deliver something that’s online, interactive, and readily changeable.
In the past, dashboards have been either too expensive or too cumbersome to make. Not anymore.
With Crunch, you can do this yourself very quickly and very easily. No coding is required.
Furthermore, there is no additional cost to make or host Crunch dashboards, and you can share them with as many clients as you like.
This article provides the basic steps on how to create dashboards as well as answering some key questions about dashboards.
How to access the dashboard
If someone has already made a dashboard in your dataset then you can jump to the dashboard by clicking on the Dashboard button in the top-right corner of the header bar. If the dataset has more than one dashboard then that button becomes a dropdown allowing you to choose which dashboard to visit.
But assuming one has not been made yet, let’s start by putting together a dashboard.
How to create a dashboard from a deck
Dashboards are made from saving analyses from 'Tables & Graphs' mode into a dashboard container, which lives in the slide-in tray. Just put all the analyses you want into a dashboard container by loading them in Tables & Graphs mode and then clicking the Save button in the top right. Don’t worry: you can always add, subtract, and amend from a dashboard after you populate it.
To make a dashboard container:
- Click on the small icon next to the Save button (top right) to open the tray panel
- Click the dropdown menu at the top of the tray and choose “New dashboard…”
- Give your dashboard a name — this will appear in the header of your new dashboard and then click Save.
You now have a new dashboard container in the tray, ready for you to save analyses into. Any analyses you save to this container will appear in your dashboard. You can reorder and rename your tables and charts in the container, but you don’t need to, as it’s easy to move them in a moment in the dashboard. You can create additional dashboards by repeating the steps above. Now that your dataset has a dashboard, you’ll find the “Dashboard” button in the header:
If you would like your dashboard to be the first thing that your users see when they arrive into a dataset, you can set it to be the “Dataset homepage”. You can read more about how to set a Dataset homepage here.
Crafting the dashboard - working with tiles, tabs, and groups
To edit a dashboard you must first go into edit mode, by clicking Edit in the upper right corner.
Tiles
Each of the analyses in the tray gets its own tile in a dashboard. One analysis in the tray = one tile in the dashboard = one slide in a PowerPoint export.
You can reposition and resize the tiles easily with drag and drop on their corners. The tiles slot together automatically, depending on their size and position.
- Reshape the tiles - by clicking the triangles in the lower right corner of every tile, and dragging to reshape its rectangular size.
- Move the tiles around - by clicking and dragging.
- Edit the tiles - including the color scheme, the contents, and so forth.
When you go to Edit a tile, you are taken to the same editing screen that is explained on our introductory page on exporting from a deck to PowerPoint.
Rich-text tiles allow you to insert formattable commentary and images. Click the + icon in the top grey bar, and select Rich-text tile. Other tile types are also available.
Filters
Filtering enables anyone to drill down into the data, including your end viewers (clients).
Filters for dashboards in Crunch are called Groups.
If you don’t have any Groups set up, click the + icon and select Groups.
If you do have any Groups set up (e.g., you have a left-hand side panel already), then just click Edit groups at the bottom of the groups panel.
You can find out more about creating and working with these group filters here.
Tabs
Dashboard tabs let you have multiple 'pages' of a dashboard, allowing you to organize your dashboard's content. It also enables selective exports from a tab (or custom subset of tabs) into PowerPoint.
Click + icon in the top grey bar, and select Tabs.
You can move tiles to different tabs by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of the tile.
Important things to know about Crunch dashboards
Dashboards and dashboard containers are two sides of the same coin
If you want to add a tile to the dashboard, you simply add an analysis to the appropriate dashboard container. If your dashboard does not have tabs then it will be added to the bottom of the dashboard. If your dashboard does have tabs then it will be added to the bottom of the currently open dashboard tab folder.
If you remove a tile from the dashboard, it will delete the analysis from the dashboard container. And vice versa.
KPI tiles
KPI tiles allow you to call out a specific number from a table. You simply change the Chart Type to KPI and select the cell of the table that contains the specific number you wish to pull out.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone make a dashboard?
At the time this article was written, you must have Editor permissions for a dataset to create a dashboard, but this is under review.
Can I share my dashboard with clients who I don't want to see the dataset?
Yes, you can set a dataset permission (via the “Permissions” tab of the dataset properties) such that clients are not shown the button and links in dashboards for reaching the underlying dataset. This will make the dashboard appear to be the entire client deliverable. But note that this is not a substitute for genuine access permissions - it is still possible to reach the dataset if you know how.
Can you export from a dashboard into PowerPoint or Excel?
Absolutely. And this can be done by you and/or your end viewer/client. The exports will include any filtering you make in the dashboard. You can also selectively export dashboard tabs.
Dashboards can be used by researchers as part of a workflow into PowerPoint. That is, the intention of a dashboard may not be for sharing with clients, but simply as an effective means to customize the look and feel of charts and tables before export.
Can the dashboard be branded or white-labeled?
You can create a branded experience for customers by:
- customizing the sub-domain of the URL (e.g., yourcompany.crunch.io)
- setting up color palettes for visualizations
- inserting images (such as logos) into rich-text tiles
- restricting viewer access to the dataset (so they see the dashboard only)