Using Single KPI Charts to spotlight your most important numbers
Enhancing your KPI dashboards with clear, single-value views.
What are Single KPI Charts?
Single KPI charts, also referred to as single KPI views, are a good way to emphasize an individual KPI, specifically the actual performance of that KPI's value at a single point in time, or as a summed total over a period of time. Single KPI charts also provide some historical context to the emphasized value by using a graphical line chart to display previous trend data.
This trend line is purely graphical in nature and is aimed at placing the value in reference to historical performance, so the trend line does not contain values.
Types of Single KPI views
There are various types of single KPI views available for emphasizing a KPI, metric, or simple data point:
Basic actual
Uses a chart to show the actual or last value entered for the KPI. This type of chart can also be customized to show only the last entry, or an accumulated value of many different data points over time.
Integrated trend line
To give the actual value of the KPI some context, a trend line is sometimes incorporated. Typically, these trend lines would not contain values but would provide a secondary visual aid to see if the value has fluctuated or remained constant.
Ratios
This type of view works well for showing ratios or percentages. These types of charts are useful when looking at KPIs calculated from one or more values, such as the percentage of calls answered within an SLA, or the percentage of capacity in a manufacturing process.
Comparisons and targets
Comparisons against previous periods can also be displayed on these charts, enabling a second visual dimension in which to place the context of the main value. For example, you can see the total calls into a service center and then see if that has increased or decreased compared to the previous period.
RAG (red, amber, and green indicators)
Single KPI charts can also show secondary color-oriented indicators. These indicators, also referred to as RAG (red, amber, green), can provide a visual indication of when the value falls within certain value criteria. For example, when a value is within an acceptable limit the green indicator displays, and when it falls below, either an amber or red color is shown.
Best practice for Single KPI charts
Single views can be a powerful way to communicate a KPI's performance in a very simple way. But it's worth considering some best practice advice when deploying this chart type on KPI dashboards and reports:
- Use full, descriptive language when providing a chart title.
- Ensure that comparative date ranges are identical to avoid misleading totals.
- Place the single view in areas of prominence when this information needs to be seen at a glance.
How to use Single KPI charts in SimpleKPI
The single KPI chart is the easiest of all the chart types to set up in SimpleKPI. Selecting the individual KPI and the date range determines which values fall within range. Options can then be used to filter for showing RAG, trend, and target. Furthermore, by selecting a secondary or comparison date range, the single chart will automatically display the change between the two values.
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