Feature Update Request: Kiosk Mode for Dashboards

L_123

Smartsheet dashboards are just begging to be used as a kiosk. A rotation between a list of user specified dashboards showing different KPI's, and a home dashboard that is navigated to upon any user input would be amazing to have, and I would use it throughout the facilities I work at. I am able to obtain this functionality by using other programs/coding in combination with smartsheet, but I would prefer it was all on smartsheet.

 

I have submitted a product enhancement request

Andrée Starå

Hi,

Great idea! That would be a great addition to Smartsheet features.

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Paul Newcome

I may have an idea.

 

Are all of the metrics the same type for each person? As in... Bob's exact numbers may be different from Joe's, but they are pulled from the same sheets in the same format, just different names?

Andrée Starå

I'm intrigued!

Paul Newcome

I haven't worked out the specifics yet, but I feel like a combination of cell linking, forms, and hyperlinks could work to coordinate various dashboards/dashboard widgets.

I set up a similar solution that allowed users to select date ranges to display key metrics.

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I built a very basic sheet with two date columns (Start and End) and created a form with just those two fields available. I set the form to go to a specific URL after submission and set that URL as my dashboard's. I had new form entries populating at the bottom of the sheet, and row 1 had basic formulas in the columns to pull the most recent entries.

 

I then used cell links on my metrics sheet to pull those two dates in, and referenced those as my start and end dates for my metrics.

 

I went back into my original dashboard and set up the appropriate chart widgets and whatnot and used a Web URL widget to display the form alongside of the metrics. People could then enter the date range they wanted to view the metrics for and hit the submit button.

 

It would then reload the dashboard (since that's where the form was pointing towards), and the automatic refreshing pulled through all the rest of the sheets to update the form sheet which updated the metrics sheet which pushed the updated info into the widgets on the dashboard next to the form.

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I am thinking that for a kiosk type of dashboard, if all metrics can be displayed in the same layout then a similar idea could be used.

 

Build a "Home" dashboard that just has a form to select whatever options you are wanting to be able to provide. Have the form take you to a dashboard that displays the metrics and has a Shortcut widget that provides a hyperlink back to the "Home" dashboard.

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I don't know. I still haven't worked out all of the specifics, but I feel like a little creativity could make something work.

L_123

That's an interesting idea. The downside would be that you could only use the metric functionality on the sheet, no changing reports or charts. A time function would allow reports and charts to fluctuate as well, but maybe they will add that for engage.

I've actually tried this type of solution a couple of different ways and not been successful, mostly due to speed issues. when there are a decent amount of submissions the pages take 10 minutes to load.

Paul Newcome

Changing reports could be accomplished by adding in a helper column (I generally lean more towards checkboxes) that take into account the data submitted through the "request form" and then build the reports with that box included in the criteria.

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Changing charts... That's why I asked if the layout would be the same. Even the axis labels will update so long as the reporting data size stays the same without breaking the chart. 

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As far as slowing down goes... I haven't run into that problem yet, but I've only had a few hundred requests (submissions) thus far.

 

Maybe something setup through Zapier to automatically move old rows from the submission sheet daily/weekly/monthly to a different "junk" sheet. Have a counter column on the junk sheet that triggers an alert that reminds you to delete all of the rows when you start getting close to the 5,000 limit.

 

This would regularly "clean" your submission sheet to keep things moving at speed and would require your manual intervention only occasionally.

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Just brainstorming ideas here because I like where the ideas are heading...