What is a dashboard?

A dashboard is a graphical user interface that provides an at-a-glance view of key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and other data that is relevant to a particular business, department, or process. Dashboards often display data using visualizations such as graphs, charts, tables, and gauges, and are designed to be interactive, allowing users to filter, drill down into, and manipulate the data to gain insights and make informed decisions. Dashboards can be used in a variety of contexts, including business intelligence, project management, and operational performance monitoring, among others. They can be accessed through a web browser, a standalone application, or as part of a larger software suite.

Dashboards are used because they provide a quick and easy way to monitor important data and make informed decisions. Some of the key benefits of using dashboards include:

• At-a-glance insights: Dashboards allow users to quickly see the most important information, without having to sift through large amounts of data.

• Customizable: Dashboards can be customized to show the data that is most relevant to each individual user or team, providing them with the information they need to make informed decisions.

• Interactive: Dashboards often allow users to interact with the data, by filtering, drilling down into, or otherwise manipulating it. This helps users gain deeper insights into their data.

• Real-time updates: Many dashboards can be set up to automatically refresh with the latest data, so that users always have access to the most up-to-date information.

What is looker and how to create a dashboard using it?

 It is a tool that organizations use to explore and understand their data. The platform enables users to create custom dashboards, reports, and visualizations, and provides a range of tools and techniques for data exploration, analysis, and visualization.

 Looker is designed to be flexible and scalable, and can be used to analyze data from a variety of sources, including databases, cloud data warehouses, and APIs. It provides a user-friendly interface and a range of pre-built data models, making it easy for organizations to get up and running quickly.

What’s new inside Looker?

With the latest update from Google Cloud Looker has added the ability to interactively explore modeled data from Looker, Google Cloud’s modern business intelligence platform, using Connected Sheets. This brings connectivity between the familiar interface of Google Sheets and the 50+ data sources available within Looker’s open ecosystem, including BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Snowflake, and Redshift.

Some of the key features of Looker include:

• Data modeling: Looker provides a way to model data, allowing users to define relationships between data tables, create calculated fields, and build custom metrics

• Visualization: Looker provides a range of visualization options, including charts, graphs, tables, and more, that can be used to explore and understand data

• Data exploration: Looker provides a range of data exploration tools, including the ability to filter, aggregate, and drill down into data, helping users to uncover insights and make informed decisions

• Collaboration: Looker provides a way for teams to collaborate on data analysis, by sharing dashboards, reports, and other visualizations with others

Steps to follow:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the looker studio

2. To create dashboard select create blank report

3. Select Data Source connector

4. Add visualizations, such as charts, graphs, tables, and more

5. Customize your dashboard

Connect to your data: connect Google Sheets to Looker
Prepare the Google Sheet:
Connect Looker to Google Sheets:
1. Log into your Looker account
2. Select add data to report and select Google Connectors

Build your dashboards: To build your dashboard, you will need to create a new dashboard and add visualizations, such as charts, graphs, tables, and more, to it. You can also add filters, calculations, and other components to your dashboard.

use Add a chart option to see different types of charts available

Define your metrics: Looker provides a range of built-in metrics, but you can also create custom metrics based on your data. These metrics can be used to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and other data that is important to your organization.

Add visualizations: Once you have defined your metrics, you can use Looker's visualization tools to create charts, graphs, tables, and other visualizations that help you to understand your data.

Customize your dashboard: You can customize your dashboard by adding filters, changing the layout, and modifying the appearance of your visualizations. You can also share your dashboard with others and set up automatic updates.

adding filters

changing the layout, and modifying the appearance of your visualizations.

Using themes and layouts you can customize the appearance and organization of your dashboards and reports. 

E.g. of dashboard created using looker