Dashboards

A dashboard charts the shape of a whole research database. Where a table is for reading a dataset row by row, a dashboard is for seeing it all at once: distributions, trends, and breakdowns that no single row reveals.

It is a page of charts. Each chart counts the records in your research database and groups them by a dimension, so a whole set of patents becomes one curve, one ranking, one split. And nothing here is frozen. The charts redraw themselves as patents, products, and mappings arrive.

A dashboard at a glance#

Here is a dashboard over the patents of a research database. Read as a table, the same records are rows to work through one by one; read as a dashboard, they are four questions answered at once.

One look shows that:

• filings have risen steeply since 2018,
• most of the portfolio is still in force,
• one applicant leads the field, and
• a large block of recently filed applications is still working through examination.

That is what a dashboard is for. It turns a pile of records into a picture you can reason about.

Chart types#

Patalyze gives you several shapes, each suited to a different question. A single number answers "how many". Bar charts rank and break down. Line and area charts follow a count over time. Pie, donut, and ring charts show how a whole splits into parts. Radar compares several measures at once, a funnel shows how a set narrows stage by stage, and sankey and sunburst trace how one dimension flows or nests into another. Here is each one, drawn from the same research database.

Single number#

A stat answers the simplest question of all: how many? It is the headline count of whatever the source holds, with no grouping. Reach for it when one figure is the whole point.

Bar charts#

A bar chart lines categories up so you can compare them by length. It is the natural answer to "who files the most" or "which territories appear most often". With long labels the bars turn horizontal, and a limit trims the list to the leaders.

Line charts#

A line traces a count across time, so momentum is the whole story. Here filings climb year after year.

Area charts#

An area chart follows the same count over time but fills the space underneath. Split it by a second dimension and the bands stack into a running total. This one breaks each year down by status, so you read the growth and the mix at once.

Pie charts#

A pie shows composition: the share each slice takes of the total. Keep it to a handful of slices and it answers "how is this split" at a glance.

Donut charts#

A donut is a pie with its center hollowed out: a calmer take on the same composition.

Ring charts#

A ring plots the same composition as a set of concentric arcs, each filling the share it takes of the whole. It trades the pie's wedges for a stack of gauges, so an exact proportion is easy to read off, slice by slice.

Radar charts#

A radar spreads one dimension around a wheel of spokes and traces a shape across them. It answers "where is this portfolio strong" at a glance: the further the outline reaches on a spoke, the more it concentrates there.

Funnel charts#

A funnel stacks stages largest first, so each step's drop-off is the story. Follow a set as it narrows: every filing at the top, only the granted-and-in-force few at the bottom.

Sankey charts#

A sankey traces how records flow from one dimension into another, the width of each ribbon set by how many follow that path. Here applicants fan out into the fields they file in, so the busiest routes read as the thickest bands.

Sunburst charts#

A sunburst nests a hierarchy in rings: the center splits into broad groups, each of those into finer ones as you move outward. It shows composition at every depth at once, a field and then the subclasses inside it.

Building a chart#

Every chart is assembled from the same few pieces: a source of records to count, optional filters that narrow what it counts, the axes that shape how it is drawn, and, on some shapes, a limit that trims and orders the result. A chart born on a table, through a column's "Visualize as chart", arrives with these already set.

Data source#

The source is the set of records a chart counts. Patent charts run aqua; point the same chart at your products and it turns orange.

• Patents: count and group the patents in your research database.
• Products: chart your products instead, by category, manufacturer, or territory.
• Mappings: count the patent-to-product mappings in the research database, then group by risk band to chart how the threats distribute.

Filters#

Filters narrow which records a chart counts, separately from how it groups them. They are the same filters you use on a table or in search, and they show as chips above the chart, so you can always see what has been left out.

Axes#

The axes decide how a chart is drawn. The x axis is the dimension you plot: an attribute (applicants, status, territory, or a field you have added yourself) or a date. When it is a date, the Group by control rolls the timeline up into the bucket it counts into, by year, quarter, or month.

The y axis is always a count of records, so every point on the x axis shows how many. To compare two dimensions at once, Subdivide by a second attribute and the bars or bands split into stacked or grouped series.

Pies, donuts, and rings trade the x axis for slices, and the relational shapes, sankey and sunburst, chain several dimensions into columns or rings. The underlying choice never changes: pick a dimension, count the records.

Limits#

Most shapes hold more values than fit on screen, so they take a limit that keeps the leaders and folds the rest away: Top 5, Top 10, Top 20, or All. A sort then orders what remains, by count (highest or lowest first) or by name (A to Z).

The single number, line, and area charts have no limit. A stat is one figure, and a timeline already runs the whole date range.

Reading a dashboard#

Most dashboards lean on the same handful of questions, whichever workflow you are running. Once you can read these four, you can read almost any dashboard.

• Filings over time. A line or area chart of patents by date shows whether a field is heating up or cooling off. A steep, late climb means most of the art is recent; a long block of still-pending filings is examination yet to land.
• Top applicants. A bar chart grouped by applicant names the companies that own the space, and how far ahead the leader sits.
• Portfolio breakdowns. A pie or donut split by status, territory, or classification shows the make-up of the set: how much is in force, where it is filed, which technologies it concentrates in.
• Risk distribution. Point a chart at your mappings and group by risk band to see how the threats stack up: a single critical match carries far more weight than a long tail of low ones.