Indicator

An indicator reflects the value of a single key measure. It is used when a dashboard contains values that need to be monitored on a regular basis to understand the overall situation. These can be the number of incidents for the past day, plan performance, or a YoY increase in sales. Indicators are most often placed at the top or on the right side of a dashboard. Make sure there are no more than six indicators per screen so that they do not lose their urgency or confuse users. Using indicators of different sizes, you can build a hierarchy of the various metrics according to significance.

indicator-chart

You can set up the size and color of an indicator.

indicator-chart-red

Source table
Year Sales
2022 6M
2021 28M
2020 18M
2019 9M
2018 1M

Wizard sections

Wizard
section
Description
Measure Measure. One measure that determines the indicator value.
Filters Dimension or measure. Used as a filter.

Creating an indicator

To create an indicator:

Warning

If you use a new DataLens object model with workbooks and collections:

  1. Go to the DataLens home page. In the left-hand panel, select Collections and workbooks.
  2. Open the workbook, click Create in the top-right corner, and select the appropriate object.

Follow the guide from step 4.

  1. Go to the DataLens home page.
  2. In the left-hand panel, select Charts.
  3. Click Create chartChart.
  4. At the top left, click Select dataset and specify the dataset to visualize.
  5. Select the Indicator chart type.
  6. Drag a dimension or measure from the dataset to the Measure section. The value is displayed as a number.

Additional settings

Changing indicator size and color

To change indicator size and color:

  1. In the Measure section, click .
  2. In the Indicator settings window, select the size and color and click Apply.

Customizing header display

To customize header display:

  1. At the top of the screen, click next to the chart type.

  2. Select header display options:

    • Field name: Show field name in header.
    • Manually: Rename header.
    • Hide: Hide header.
  3. Click Apply.

Chart settings window

indicator-chart-settings

Recommendations

  • Use emojis when calculating indicator values to make them more informative.

    indicator-chart-emoji

    This indicator chart uses a calculated field with the following formula: IF([Average spend]>2200, CONCAT("✔️",STR(ROUND([Average spend]))),CONCAT("🔻",STR(round([Average spend])))).

  • Describe the context to make it clear what indicators mean.

    indicator-chart-context