Boost Efficiency: Track Performance with Gauge Widgets!

Are you trying to find a better way to monitor the performance and development of your company? Gauge visuals are the only source you need. With the help of gauges, you can clearly communicate and keep track of important indicators, empowering you to make better informed decisions and take action to improve results. In this blog post, we’ll explore how gauge widgets can help you track performance more efficiently and make better decisions.

What is a gauge widget?

A gauge widget is a graphical representation of a single value within a range of potential values and is presented in comparison to a target goal. Key performance indicators (KPIs) or other metrics that need to be tracked in real-time are frequently shown using it. The gauge widget often has a circular or semi-circular shape with a moving needle or pointer to show a value at the moment.

Benefits of using gauge widgets to track performance in business

Here are some of the benefits of using gauge widgets for performance management:

1. Visual appeal: Gauge widgets are attractive and easy for viewers to understand, which makes them perfect for presentations and reports.
2. Simplicity: Gauge widgets are accessible to a wide range of stakeholders due to the simplicity in both creating and understanding.
3. Clarity: Gauge widgets give you a clear, concise view of a single metric so you can concentrate on what matters most.
4. Flexibility and customization: You can create gauge widgets to your specifications so that you can display a variety of measurements and data points.
5. Real-time tracking: Gauge widgets can be updated in real-time to provide you with the most recent data on performance measures.

When to use a gauge widget

Gauge widgets are used to present a single value within a given range in a clear and aesthetically pleasing manner. They are frequently used in reporting and dashboard apps to track KPIs and present real-time data in an approachable way. They can be used to monitor resource usage, show environmental statistics, report on financial measures, and track progress toward a goal.

In industrial settings, where it’s critical to know when a machine or piece of equipment is functioning within safe and effective parameters, gauges are also helpful for monitoring equipment performance. In the example below, the radial gauge shows anything that causes a manufacturing process to run at less than maximum speed.

How to create a gauge widget in Bold BI

Radial gauges need one value or one target value as the minimum requirement. However, you can also configure series, hidden columns, and filters for more customization. To configure a radial gauge in Bold BI, follow the steps indicated on our documentation.

Most effective use cases of gauge widgets

Here are some examples of successful gauge widget implementations in real-world applications:

Finance: gross profit margin

This radial gauge shows the percentage of sales in revenue that the company can convert into gross profit. By utilizing the pointer in a gauge widget to visualize gross profit margin in a finance department, businesses can quickly identify whether their profitability is on track or if they need to take action to improve it.

Education: admission rate

Admission rate is a key metric used in education to measure the percentage of applicants who are accepted into a school or program. Visualizing admission rates in a gauge widget can be a useful tool for educational institutions to quickly understand their admissions performance.  Using the full circle gauge type paints a clear picture of the percentage of students admitted versus the remaining slots.

Healthcare: average waiting times

Healthcare businesses may rapidly comprehend their patient wait times by using gauge widgets. It shows one value along a dial or semi-circular arc, paired with a pointer or colour code to show if the value is good, average, or terrible. For instance, the gauge widget might show the average wait time in minutes, with green denoting a brief wait, yellow denoting an average wait, and red denoting a lengthy wait. Configuring the waiting times in series properly articulate each metric in a clear way.

Healthcare: readmission rate

A gauge widget is a useful tool in the healthcare sector to visualize readmission rate. It displays a single value along a dial or semi-circular arc, with a pointer and colour codes designating whether it is good, average, or poor.

Telecommunications: customer satisfaction score

In telecommunications, we can visualize customer satisfaction in a gauge and showcase the percentage of satisfied customers. By applying a range on the gauge settings, you create the option to display the scale with three different ranges. The customer service team can therefore verify the satisfaction of the clients as positive, neutral, or negative and make relevant improvements.

Energy: ambient temperature

A gauge widget is useful in the energy sector to measure the average ambient temperature across all power plants that significantly affect operational performance. The presence of a scale in the gauge is essential in measuring the temperature extent at each point of operation.

Education: avg. subject score

The average subject score refers to the mean score obtained by all students in a particular subject to track student performance. We can visualize this metric in a horseshoe type of gauge with a scale range of zero to one hundred, therefore providing a clear understanding of each average subject score. The series also enables you to visualize the subject score all at once.

Pharmaceutical analytics: production quality

Production quality is evaluated by measuring the difference between total produced units vs units that have not been sold. With this measure in a gauge widget with a pointer, a manufacturer can know how far the standards are met. The manufacturer can also examine the variation of the production quality from the target as showcased on the below scale.

Real estate: total properties for rent

In the real estate sector, the circular type of radial gauge can be used to display the percentage of the targeted properties to be rented, after calculating the total properties rented and the total properties. Real estate owners can therefore have an easy time evaluating the remaining percentage of properties to be rented when showcased in a gauge.

Education: syllabus coverage, admission rate, graduation rate, and fees collection

In the education sector, the gauge widget is an essential tool in tracking various performance metrics such as syllabus coverage, admission rate, graduation rate, and fee collection. This enables education administrators to track teachers’ performance, students’ attendance, students’ performance, and fee payment. The use of a full circle clearly shows the percentage of an achieved target and the remaining slots.

Construction: schedule performance index

This radial gauge shows the schedule performance index, which measures actual work completed against planned progress. If the SPI is greater than 1, it indicates that the project is ahead of schedule; less than 1 indicates that the project is behind the schedule; and equal to 1 indicates that the project is on schedule.

I hope you have a better understanding of how you can use gauge widgets to display KPIs and other performance metrics, thereby gaining valuable insights into your performance to make better-informed decisions to drive success.