I suggest that "dashboards" as defined by Few is only one of many views necessary to tell a story: it answers the 1) "What" - as in "Status, Trend/Change or Contribution ". we also need 2) support evidence "Who, When and Where" (Details) and Analysis 3) "Why and How".

In general, even with just a few metrics, I find that explaining just "what" is challenging enough in one page. Think of the financial page of a newspaper: it demands a combination of graphs, tabular info and narrative text. So when creating an information display, I try to organize different views according to their purpose - and make them display/print in one page.

The opportunity that computers give us over paper is the ability to link all different views with common filters - so that the user is able to iterate formulating and answering questions in the display (cycling through Schneiderman's information seeking mantra as many times as needed).

Good points Zach, especially the one you make in the comments regarding understanding audience for a dashboard. In my experience, senior business leaders don't have the time or attention span for a desktop-based UI dashboard. So paper and/or blackberry/mobile must be considered, at least for the "overview first" level of information.

More on my blog at http://www.ciodashboard.com/

Zach,

Your definition differs from mine because we seem to be talking about different things entirely. I define a dashboard as an information display that is used to "monitor" what's going on. You are referring to a display that is used for data analysis or telling a story (two very different forms of data presentation which can't be displayed in the same manner).

A display that's used for regularly monitoring what's going on in an effort to maintain situation awareness requires a much different design than one that's used for data analysis or storytelling. When you're monitoring information for situation awareness, you must see the pieces on a single screen or page to make all the necessary connections and comparisons that are needed to build the big picture in your head of what's going on.

If we want to cut through the confusion that exists regarding proper information display, we must be careful to define our terms carefully and declare our purposes clearly. Multiple pages or screens often work well for telling a story, which much be delivered one piece at a time in the proper sequence. Multiple screens can also work well for analysis as your focus changes from the pursuit of one question to another. Multiple screens do not work well when you need to make comparisons and connections, however, because if the things that must be connected aren't in front of your eyes at the same time, you're forced to rely on working memory, which is extremely limited. In other words, the restriction to a single screen in this case is not arbitrary, but based on scientific evidence of what's actually required to do the job.

I see there's a good thread that covers some of this at http://www.perceptualedge.com/discussion.htm under New Topic Proposals/Nomenclature for visualization, dashboards, analytic tools, etc.