Build your first dashboard and widget

Having data isn't enough — if it isn't visible, it rarely makes it into decisions. The fastest way for an analyst to create value is to put a small widget on top of their own dataset. This lesson takes you through that one widget end-to-end.

Create a dashboard

1. Click Dashboard in the left sidebar and choose Create dashboard.
2. Select the collection you created in the previous lesson, then click Continue.
3. In the editor, click the name in the upper-left and enter a name that reflects the analysis topic, such as Regional foot traffic.
4. Click Settings (the gear icon) in the upper-right to edit the alias, description, and tags. If you enter any details, click Save in the settings dialog.

The editor starts with an empty canvas. Add widgets from Quick add in the center or from the Widget library on the left.

Add one widget

For this lesson, select Bar chart under Quick add. You can also click Visualizations → Bar chart in the left Widget library or drag it onto the canvas.

Once the widget lands on the canvas, the configuration panel opens on the right.

1. Analytics source: Pick the Regional daily foot traffic dataset you created in the previous lesson.
2. Data mode: Leave it on Simple mode for now. Query mode comes in the next lesson.
3. X-axis field: Choose region.
4. Y-axis field: Choose people_count, then select Sum under Aggregation.

The chart should show the full-year total for each of the eight regions. Give the widget a descriptive name such as Total foot traffic by region. In the next lesson, the date range selector will recalculate these bars for a selected period.

Each selection is reflected on the canvas immediately. Click Save in the upper-right to save the dashboard and add it to the left collection tree.

Self-check

• Does the dashboard save and appear as a resource in the collection tree?
• Does the bar chart show eight regions on the X-axis and the sum of people_count on the Y-axis?

Next lesson

You did this one in simple mode, but the place analysts most often get stuck is the data configuration. The next lesson covers per-chart-type data shapes and query mode.