Best practices for designing effective Report Services (RS) dashboards

The goal of most Report Services (RS) dashboards is to magnify specific points of data, making them easy for users to identify. To achieve this goal effectively, you must make certain decisions before you begin creating your RS dashboard.

The best practices are grouped into the following sections:

• Choosing datasets for an RS dashboard

• Layering information in an RS dashboard

• Planning the RS dashboard's outline and structure

• Placing the data and visualizations onto an RS dashboard

• Positioning and formatting the RS dashboard objects

For information on the objects that allow you to implement these objectives, see the following sections:

• Layering data in RS dashboards: Panels and panel stacks

• Providing interactivity to users: Selectors

• Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs

• Providing Flash-based analysis and interactivity: Widgets

• Enabling transition animations for Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in Flash Mode (Web)

• Adding title bars to Grid/Graphs

• Enabling quick switch for Grid/Graphs

For general best practices related to designing a document, see Best practices for designing effective documents.

Related Topics

• What is a Report Services (RS) dashboard?

• Design ideas and examples

• Designing a simulated portal environment

• Designing the right RS dashboard