Once Again, with Style: Understanding and Supporting Partial Reuse in Dashboard Authoring

TL;DR

This paper investigates how partial reuse of existing dashboards can aid dashboard creation, based on user feedback and a design probe, addressing challenges in formatting and layout tasks.

Contribution

It introduces findings from a formative study on reuse needs and presents ReDash, a design probe for partial reuse of dashboard styles and layouts.

Findings

Identified key challenges in dashboard reuse and formatting.

Developed ReDash, a tool to support partial reuse of dashboard presentation features.

Abstract

Presentation-oriented tasks including formatting and layout design are critical but often neglected aspects of dashboard authoring given their labor intensive nature. In this work, we follow a user-centered design approach to explore ways that partial reuse of pre-existing dashboards may support the dashboard design process. Based on collective feedback from 10 professional dashboard creators, we contribute: (a) findings from a formative study characterizing dashboard reuse needs and challenges; and (b) reflections and opportunities from a concept validation study with ReDash, a design probe for partial reuse of dashboard presentation features (style and layout) from multiple sources.