Design Aspects for COVID-19 Dashboards – Evidence from Eye-Tracking Evaluation

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused dashboards to become widely used by the public and decision-makers. Nevertheless, dashboard interfaces have been related to business intelligence since their origins, and the search for improvements in their design is not new. This article’s objective is to conduct a user evaluation of COVID-19 dashboards that contain geospatial information. This is done through a formative study to identify problematic aspects of user/dashboard interaction. This is enhanced by comparing two self-developed dashboards that, according to previous tests, have functionalities with different appearances. User evaluation is performed through mixed research that combines objective (eye-tracking) and subjective (a questionnaire and an interview) methods. The results generate recommendations for better-designed dashboard interfaces that can transfer information appropriately. The vital elements needed to achieve this are interactivity, the option to choose the metrics, and the distribution of the elements in the layout, all playing a role in a more user-friendly interaction between the user and the dashboard.