Dashboard Engagement

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Dashboards are central to how users interact with a product, often serving as the first place they look for information and actions. For product designers and managers, the challenge is making sure dashboards highlight what matters most, encourage exploration, and drive ongoing engagement.

Dashboard Engagement Testing uses a design stack of UX metrics: engagement, comprehension, success, sentiment, and satisfaction to measure how effectively the dashboard supports user needs. This approach replaces subjective opinions with measurable insights.

With these findings, designers and managers can make informed design decisions, prioritize improvements, and demonstrate the impact of changes on business outcomes. For example, testing an online banking platform’s member dashboard revealed strong comprehension but weaknesses in engagement and satisfaction, showing where adjustments were needed to increase user activity and retention.

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Define Goals for Your Dashboard Engagement Test

A dashboard should balance user needs like clarity, usefulness, and ease of navigation with business goals such as engagement, adoption, and loyalty. Measuring how users engage with the dashboard helps ensure it stays both valuable and impactful.

Audience

To define user needs, you first need to establish who your audience is. In the case of our banking platform example, we targeted bank members and online banking consumers.

**User Needs
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As a customer engaging with a dashboard, the top five most important needs would be:

1. Information should be presented clearly, with priorities like balances, tasks, or updates easy to spot. (information should be Intuitive)

2. The dashboard should surface content, notifications, and tools that match each user’s goals or context. (Dashboard should be Valuable)

3. Users should be able to complete key tasks (e.g., transfers, updates, or reviews) quickly and with minimal effort. (Dashboard should be Efficient)

4. Users want the flexibility to customize or filter their dashboard so it reflects what matters most to them. (Dashboard should be Adaptable)

5. The dashboard should work reliably across devices, avoiding errors or confusing differences in experience. (Dashboard should be Reliable)

These five ensure a dashboard feels useful, personal, and dependable, making it easier for users to return and stay engaged.

Business Goals

Here are the five most important business goals for dashboard engagement:

1. Increase Active Use – Encourage users to return frequently and interact with the dashboard as part of their routine.

2. Boost Adoption of Features – Drive awareness and use of new or underutilized features through dashboard placement.

3. Promote Stickiness & Retention – Deliver a compelling experience that keeps customers loyal over time.

4. Drive Cross-Product Engagement – Highlight and link to related services or tools that deepen the customer’s relationship with the business.

5. Collect Engagement Insights – Capture data on dashboard interactions to optimize layout, prioritize improvements, and inform product strategy.

These goals help the business increase engagement, expand product usage, and build long-term customer loyalty through the dashboard.

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Choose Metrics to Test Dashboard

For Banko’s dashboard experience, a design stack of four UX metrics was chosen to measure how well the interface supports user needs. This stack — Usability, Intent, Engagement, and Satisfaction — was established by mapping core dashboard needs directly to measurable outcomes:

• Intuitive & Reliable → Usability
 Users need to trust that the dashboard works consistently and is easy to operate. Usability measures whether participants can find and interact with key dashboard features without friction.

• Valuable → Intent
 The dashboard should motivate users to explore beyond core functions. Intent measures whether users indicate interest in engaging with secondary or new features, such as financial health scores or deeper insights.

• Efficient → Engagement
 Dashboards are meant to save time. Engagement evaluates whether users’ first clicks go to the most relevant features, showing if the design efficiently guides them to what matters most.

• Adaptable → Satisfaction
 Different users rely on dashboards for different goals. Satisfaction captures whether the experience feels clear, flexible, and supportive of a variety of needs.

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Establish Hunches to Direct Your Testing

Dashboards aim to drive frequent use, discovery of features, and long-term retention. To test whether Banko’s dashboard is meeting these goals, we start with hunches (predictions about potential weak spots or engagement opportunities) and then turn those hunches into testable questions.

Example: Banko Banking Dashboard

<table xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="min-width: 75px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Hunch</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Question</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>UX Metric</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Users may ignore the Financial Health Score despite its prominence, focusing instead on familiar account balances.</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>“What’s the first thing you would click on this dashboard to learn more about your financial situation?”</p><p></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://glare.helio.app/define/ux-metrics/behavioral-metrics/engagement">Engagement</a></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>The labels and bar chart under the Financial Health Score (Spending, Saving, Borrowing, Planning) may not be clear enough for users to interpret quickly.</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>“How do you feel about the categories under your Financial Health Score mean?”</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://glare.helio.app/define/ux-metrics/attitudinal-metrics/posttask-satisfaction">Satisfaction</a></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Calls-to-action like Schedule Appointment and Improve Your Credit may not feel relevant or compelling enough to drive clicks.</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>“Which, if any, of the recommendations on this dashboard would you act on first, and why?”</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://glare.helio.app/define/ux-metrics/behavioral-metrics/usability">Usability</a></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Navigation to critical tools (e.g., Transfer, Bill Pay, Savings Goals) may compete with dashboard recommendations, creating uncertainty about where to go first.</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>“How easy was it to find where to complete your most common banking tasks from this page?”</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://glare.helio.app/define/ux-metrics/behavioral-metrics/usability">Usability</a></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Users might value customization, wanting control over which widgets or modules appear on their dashboard.</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>“If you could customize this dashboard, what would you add, remove, or rearrange?”</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://glare.helio.app/define/ux-metrics/behavioral-metrics/intent">Intent</a></p></td></tr></tbody></table>

These hunches help Banko’s product team zero in on engagement, clarity, usability, and relevance. By testing them with users, Banko can confirm whether the dashboard motivates ongoing interaction or if adjustments are needed to improve feature adoption and long-term engagement.

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Turn Hunches into Test Questions

Turning these metrics into participant questions transforms design assumptions into measurable signals. Each metric uses a specific question type paired with a clear example from Banko’s online banking dashboard:

• Engagement **(First-click test)**
Question type: Click test.

  Example: “Where would you click first if you wanted to review your recent transactions?”

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• Intent **(Multiple-choice selection)**

  Question type: Preferred action choice.

  Example: “Which of the following actions would you most want to take on this dashboard?” (e.g., Check balance, Pay a bill, Transfer funds, View spending insights)

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• Usability **(Average success across tasks)**

  Question type: Click test directive.

  Example: “Where would you click to transfer money between accounts?” followed by “Where would you click to download a monthly statement?” (Success rate is averaged across tasks)

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• Satisfaction **(Likert scale)**

  Question type: Satisfaction scale.

  Example: “Overall, how satisfied are you with the layout of this dashboard?” (Very Dissatisfied → Very Satisfied)

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Calculate UX Metric Scores from User Feedback

We tested Banko’s online banking dashboard with 100 banking consumer participants, and their responses were analyzed and converted into UX metric scores on a 0–100% scale. Each metric in the design stack was calculated from survey and task responses, then evaluated against the following scale:

• Very Good = 90% and above

• Good = 70% to 89%

• Average = 50% to 69%

• Poor = 30% to 49%

• Very Poor = below 30%

Once the individual UX metric scores are calculated, the average of those scores are used to determine the overall score for the user experience.

Banko's dashboard scores:

• Engagement (93% — Very Good): First-click results show users immediately engaged with core dashboard content, particularly account details.

• Intent (72% — Good): Many users indicated interest in exploring new features like the Financial Health Score, though follow-through intent leaves room for growth.

• Usability (84% — Good): Core tasks such as making payments were completed smoothly, showing the dashboard is efficient and reliable.

• Satisfaction (77% — Good): Post-task feedback highlighted clarity and simplicity, with participants describing the dashboard as “easy to use.”

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Together, these results produced an overall test score of 82% — Good, showing that Banko’s dashboard is effective and well-received. Strong usability and engagement signal that users trust the experience, while improving intent to use newer features could help expand adoption and deepen product value.

Click here to check out the raw survey data and UX metric scores for Banko's user dashboard.

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Draw Signals from Your Design Stack

Here’s how signals were surfaced from the Banko Dashboard test results by following these five steps:

1. Focus on poorly scoring metrics

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• No metrics scored Poor in this test. All landed in the Good or Very Good range, showing overall strength.

• Intent (72%), while still Good, is the lowest-scoring metric, highlighting room for improvement in encouraging exploration of new features.

2. Identify patterns across metrics

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• Engagement (93%) was Very Good, with most users’ first click going to Accounts rather than the Financial Health Score.

• Combined with the Good Intent score, this pattern shows the dashboard is intuitive and efficient for core tasks, but new features are not capturing attention upfront.

3. Determine if user needs are being met

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• Clarity: Met. Accounts and payment options are clear and easy to access.

• Relevance: Partially met. Users prioritize Accounts over the Financial Health Score, suggesting feature relevance is not fully established.

• Efficiency: Met. High usability (84%) shows tasks can be completed smoothly.

• Control: Partially met. Users navigate effectively but show limited interest in exploring beyond core features.

• Consistency: Met. Satisfaction (77%) shows the dashboard works reliably across interactions.

4. Compare outcomes to your business goals

• Increase Active Use: Strongly supported by high engagement.

• Boost Adoption of Features: At risk, with weak first-click usage of Financial Health Score.

• Promote Stickiness & Retention: Supported by high usability and satisfaction.

• Drive Cross-Product Engagement: Limited, since new features are being overlooked.

• Collect Engagement Insights: Signal reveals feature adoption is the key gap to address in future iterations.

5. Surface signals & establish a direction

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Signals derived from the data:

1. Accounts dominate attention — 55% of first clicks went to Accounts vs. 15% to the Financial Health Score.

2. Interest in the Financial Health Score exists — 42% expressed intent to explore it later, but initial visibility and draw are weak.

3. Overall usability is strong — high usability and satisfaction indicate the dashboard is intuitive and dependable.

Direction based on business context:

• To align with roadmap goals for feature adoption and cross-product engagement, Banko should adjust dashboard hierarchy and visual emphasis to make the Financial Health Score more prominent and compelling.

• Quarterly priorities might include A/B testing alternate layouts, improving value framing of the Financial Health Score, and integrating contextual nudges to drive engagement with underutilized features.

Based on the signals and design direction, we created an updated version of the design with the expected UX metric improvement:

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The direction is clear: Banko's dashboard excels at core usability but needs refinements to increase engagement with new features like the Financial Health Score, aligning with business goals of boosting adoption and driving cross-product engagement.

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