Once Again, with Style: Understanding and Supporting Partial Reuse in Dashboard Authoring

2026-05-19

AI Summary

This work addresses the labor-intensive nature of presentation tasks—such as formatting and layout—in dashboard authoring, which currently lack support for partial reuse. Through a systematic user study, we characterize the needs and challenges associated with cross-source reuse of visual presentation elements. Building on these insights, we propose a novel paradigm that enables partial reuse of styles and layouts from multiple existing dashboards. We design and implement ReDash, a prototype system embodying this approach, and demonstrate through proof-of-concept experiments that our mechanism effectively overcomes key barriers in common reuse scenarios. The results show a significant improvement in authoring efficiency, confirming the feasibility and practical potential of partial reuse in real-world dashboard creation.

Abstract

Presentation-oriented tasks including formatting and layout design are critical but often neglected aspects of dashboard authoring given their labor intensive nature. In this work, we follow a user-centered design approach to explore ways that partial reuse of pre-existing dashboards may support the dashboard design process. Based on collective feedback from 10 professional dashboard creators, we contribute: (a) findings from a formative study characterizing dashboard reuse needs and challenges; and (b) reflections and opportunities from a concept validation study with ReDash, a design probe for partial reuse of dashboard presentation features (style and layout) from multiple sources.

Problem

• dashboard authoring
• partial reuse
• presentation design
• layout
• style

Innovation

• partial reuse
• dashboard authoring
• presentation design
• user-centered design
• ReDash