Some metaphors are really stupid. Convincing people that running a company is like driving a car and you need a similar dashboard is one of them. If you are naive enough to buy it, most dashboard vendors will happily fill up your precious screen real estate with irrelevant gauges and and speedometers designed to look “cool”.
Futuristic aesthetics sells very well, but what happens when the future arrives and doesn’t look exactly like the image you bought? Will you buy a new one?
Look at that eye-catching, high-tech gauges in your dashboard and now compare them to this dashboard in the Lamborghini Reventon. Suddenly you feel tired and lost in the past… Your dashboard looks as old as an old Flash Gordon movie… How embarrassing will be to show it again…
Now that you’ve learned your lesson, put the your dashboard in design mode and make it clean, elegant and timeless. Remove textures and add data. Keep it simple and to the point. When people asked you for those cool gauges don’t laugh in their faces. Help them. You know better now.