Custom-Built IoT Dashboards: Why Visualizing Data Your Way Matters
Data representation has emerged as the factor that helps in strategic decision-making. IoT has exponentially increased the volume and variety of data available to organizations. This data is used to provide insights and opportunities. However, representation of this vast data is equally important for businesses. This is where custom-built IoT dashboards are used. They help transform raw data into business-specific insights that empower them to improve their work methods.
Why Custom Visualization of IoT Data is Essential?
Connected devices, sensors, and systems produce a large volume of data for businesses. While this big data can be of immense value, the effective strategy lies in converting this raw data into actionable insights.
Most “one-size-fits-all” dashboards do not serve the purpose for which they are meant. In almost every business, it ends up affecting decisional capabilities and leading to opportunity lapses.
A custom IoT software dashboard goes to specifics of any industry. Also, any organization has its unique ecology, faces different set of challenges, and pursues a particular goal. For this specificity, a custom dashboard should be used.
Moreover, the impact of data visualization on one would be very different from how the other person perceives. A general dashboard that is user-friendly for one can make information to feel overwhelmed and confused for another.
Understanding data depends on the roles within the organizations, and their technical abilities. Custom IoT dashboards represent stakeholders’ different preferences. This means that a user has to understand only a unique set of visually presented data for his strategies.
How Custom IoT Dashboards Help Businesses?
Some of the most prominent ways in which custom IoT dashboards impact organizations include:
Personalized Solutions
A custom-built dashboard is intended to serve exact needs. It reveals insights that general dashboards cannot generate. Take a manufacturing plant with innumerable sensors that monitor everything from the machine’s performance to energy consumption.
The standard IoT dashboard would be general displaying every information whether it is needed or not. Therefore, a custom-built IoT dashboard could be developed to highlight the precision operations of specific employee-based priorities. It opens up the business to making decisions based on data that matters.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Key metrics and KPIs are monitored in real-time, thus enabling the early detection of issues before they escalate. It helps to reduce downtime and carry optimal utilization of resources. Thus, it limits cost, improves productivity and provides customer satisfaction.
Customized User Experience
Data visualization talks a lot about the user experience. Custom-built IoT dashboards ensures that a team can quickly navigate through the interface and find the necessary insights in just a few clicks. All of this contributes to an enhanced user experience including intuitive layouts, personalized settings, and seamless data integration.
Scalability and Adaptability
Because of the evolving nature of the business, data and its reporting can also change. Custom-built IoT dashboards are designed to be scalable, adaptable solutions. This allows the organization to easily modify the visualization without compromising all its functionalities and integrating new data sources.
Building a Custom IoT Dashboard
The development process has some key phases, which are:
Discovery and Planning
In this first phase of development, the development team works together with businesses to lay down the scope, aim, and key requirements of the custom IoT software and dashboards. This phase involves conducting workshops, review of existing data landscape, and drawing up a detailed project plan.
Knowing Target Audience
A custom IoT software dashboard should be developed mindful of the audience’s needs and requirements. The level of technical know-how of the audience should also be considered in keeping the visualized information user-friendly and understandable. Wireframes, mock-ups, and interactive prototypes can be used to check whether the actual solution suits user needs.
Data Integration and Visualization
The development team will work on integrating different data sources by connecting different APIs and external applications. The data used in integration must be accurate and relevant to the initial objectives. The sorting of this data is done for purposes of visualization of only those data points that are necessary for dashboards.
Identifying the Right Tools
Next step involves in choosing a set of tools to set up custom IoT software. Some of the data visualization tools include D3.js, amCharts, Highcharts, etc. These tools have varied applications based on user requirements.
Choosing Data Representation Type
Some of the data representation techniques popular among custom IoT dashboards include:
- Bar Charts to compare between different categories.
- Line Graphs to monitor trends and real-time data.
- Tables for giving exact and accurate figures of data.
- Gantt Charts to monitor project status.
- Gauge or Meters to monitor pressure or fuel level in a machine.
- Heatmaps to check any abrupt changes in temperature in an environment.
Deployment and Ongoing Support
After the development of the dashboard, the solution is deployed into the preferred environment. Proper training and support are done to guarantee a smooth transition and ongoing maintenance. User feedbacks help to iteratively refine the dashboards and improve the whole system.
Conclusion
Custom-built IoT dashboards offer complete transformation. They empower organizations to embrace the value proposition of IoT through the delivery of critical information in a way that is intuitive, actionable, and specific.
Why one would go for a general dashboard when they can specialize their own custom-built IoT dashboard? Start turning your data into a strategic asset and contact us today. We will help understand how we can support you in producing a custom-built IoT dashboard that brings fortunes to your business. Contact us.
