Why are dashboards so popular? You can’t walk into an Information Technology department without seeing a project plan for some executive dashboard or performance dashboard project.

Are dashboards really the new face of business intelligence? Why?

Yes, I firmly believe that dashboards are here to stay. This is why:

• Users find dashboards easy to use without insulting their intelligence.
• Partioning information into chunks mirrors the way humans naturally think.
• IT departments find them fun to build.
• Business groups find them easy to fund.
• Executives like the distillation of large amounts of data into at-a-glance indicators.
• Humans respond well to colors, visual candy and lots of white space.

Take a look at the example dashboards on this site with these factors in mind and you’ll agree with me. Dashboards are here to stay.