Dashboard evaluator

1. A method of designing a dashboard comprising:

providing a dashboard design having a multi-level tree structure;

providing a set of best practice rules contained in a knowledge base module, the set of best practice rules is related to dashboard design principles, wherein a best practice rule of the set of best practice rules includes a weight value based on an importance of the best practice rule; and

evaluating the dashboard design based on the best practice rules to determine a compliance score to indicate a level of compliance with the best practice rules, wherein the dashboard design is evaluated with an evaluation engine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of best practice rules is divided into a plurality of categories for dashboard evaluation.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a user may select one or more of the plurality of categories of best practice rules for dashboard evaluation.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the plurality of categories comprise layout, color, font, interaction, and visualization or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of best practice rules can be modified to provide a dynamic set of best practice rules.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the best practice rules may be selected for evaluation based on a specified purpose or a specified user.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the tree structure comprises three levels, wherein a top level comprises a dashboard level, an intermediate level comprises a container level and a bottom level comprises a component level.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating of the dashboard design comprises evaluating the tree structure using a bottom-up approach.

9. The method of claim 1 comprises querying a user to accept or reject one or more suggestions to change the dashboard design.

10. A dashboard evaluation system for evaluating a dashboard design comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory memory device in communication with the processor and having a computer readable program code tangibly embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed by the processor to implement a method for evaluating a dashboard design having a multi-level tree structure, comprising

a knowledge base module containing a set of best practice rules related to dashboard design principles, wherein a best practice rule of the set of best practice rules includes a weight value based on an importance of the best practice rule; and

an evaluation engine, wherein when the evaluation engine is invoked to evaluate a dashboard design, the evaluation engine receives the dashboard design and determines a compliance score to indicate a level of compliance according to the set of best practice rules by the dashboard design.

11. The dashboard evaluation system of claim 10 wherein the memory device further comprises a suggestion module for suggesting one or more modifications to improve the level of compliance according to the set of best practice rules.

12. The dashboard evaluation system of claim 10 wherein the memory device further comprises a conversion module for converting a graphical dashboard design into a dashboard model for evaluation by the evaluation engine.

13. A non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code tangibly embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed by a processor to implement a method for evaluating a dashboard design having a multi-level tree structure, comprising:

a knowledge base containing a set of best practice rules related to dashboard design principles, wherein a best practice rule of the set of best practice rules includes a weight value based on an importance of the best practice rule;

an evaluation engine for evaluating the dashboard design to determine a compliance score to indicate a level of compliance with the best practice rules; and

an evaluation result module for displaying the level of compliance to the set of best practice rules by the dashboard design.

14. The non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 13 wherein the computer readable program code is further adapted to implement a dashboard design application.

15. The non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 13 comprises a conversion module adapted to convert a graphical dashboard design into a dashboard model for evaluation by the evaluation engine.