Despite the fact that books and courses on information dashboard design have been available for years, many dashboards still fail to meet users’ and organizations’ expectations. Users have trouble finding answers to basic data-related questions and fail to notice urgent problems because they aren’t obvious (or possibly even displayed) on dashboards. Because of these and other issues, many dashboards end up under-used or even abandoned. Based on Nick Desbarats’ experiences designing dashboards for over 50 organizations, Practical Dashboards uncovers the real reasons why so many dashboards end up disappointing users and organizations; reasons that go far deeper than the visual design on which most dashboard books and courses focus. Readers will learn a practical, actionable framework for creating a set of purpose-specific information displays that enable users to quickly and accurately answer their data-related questions, including fundamental ones such as, “Is everything O.K. at the moment?” often for the first time.