Dashboards

A dashboard charts the shape of a whole research. 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 and groups them by a dimension, so a thousand patents become 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#

Say you have spent a week pulling together every patent in your field: hundreds of them, filed by dozens of companies over the past decade. Read as a table, that is hundreds of rows you will never finish. Read as a dashboard, it is four questions answered at once.

In a single look you can see 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 and donut charts show how a whole splits into parts. Here is each one, drawn from the same research.

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 centre hollowed out: a calmer take on the same composition.

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.

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: chart the links between patents and the product features they match.

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 like applicants, status or territory, 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 and donuts trade the x axis for slices, and a tree breaks the total into branches. The underlying choice never changes: pick a dimension, count the records.

Limits#

Some shapes can hold more values than fit on screen. Bar, pie, donut and tree charts 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 boards 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 or tree chart grouped by applicant names the companies that own the space, and how far ahead the leader sits. Open a tree branch to see who each one files alongside.
• Portfolio breakdowns. A pie, donut or tree 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.