To make a dashboard that is actually helpful, decide what you want the dashboard to tell you about your data. What questions will give you insight into what you want to know?
##Tips on Creating Helpful Dashboards
To make a really helpful dashboard, you need to first decide what you want the dashboard to tell you about your data. What questions will give you insight into what you want to know? It helps to think of a topic or theme for your dashboard — something like “customer satisfaction,” or “second quarter sales goals,” for example.
Once you know what questions you want to know the answer to, make a question card for each question and save them. Then save the cards to the dashboard. Once you have the cards you want, structure the cards so that users can easily consume the information. Place the most important cards near the top of the dashboard or make them bigger than the other cards. Doing so, will naturally draw users' attention to the cards.
Once you’ve decided what kinds of questions your dashboard is going to answer, create and save your individual questions from the question builder and save them. Next you can add your saved questions to your dashboard and arrange them in a way that makes it easy to scan and understand.
If you have more than 10 cards on a dashboard, consider breaking the dashboard into two separate ones. You don't want to overwhelm users with too much information and each dashboard should revolve around one theme. Remember you can make as many dashboards as you want - there's no limit!
Some tips:
* Place the most important saved question cards near the top of the dashboard, or make them bigger than the other cards. That’ll help draw people’s attention to what matters most.
* If you have more than 10 cards on a dashboard, think about breaking the dashboard into two separate ones. You don't want to overwhelm people with too much information, and each dashboard should revolve around one theme or topic. Remember — you can make as many dashboards as you want, so you don’t have to cram everything into just one.
Sometimes you will need help understanding what data is available to you and what it means. Metabase provides a way for your administrators and data experts to build a [Data Model Reference](07-data-model-reference.md)
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## Next: data model references
Sometimes you’ll need help understanding what data is available to you and what it means. Metabase provides a way for your administrators and data experts to build a [data model reference](07-data-model-reference.md) to help you make sense of your database.
You can get to the data model reference at any time by clicking on the **Book** icon in the top righthand corner of the screen.
Sometimes, as you’re looking at all the various tables and data in your database, you’ll probably have questions about what all the data means. That’s where the *data model reference* comes in handy. You can get to the data model reference from the question builder screen by clicking on the **Book** icon in the top right corner of the screen.
After clicking the icon, the **Data Reference**tab will open. It lists all the databases you have access to and the tables inside them.
After clicking the icon, the **Data Reference**sidebar will open. It lists all the databases you have access to and the tables inside them.
Click on the table you would like to explore further to see a description of it and a list of all the fields it contains.
Click on the table you would like to explore further to see a description of it and a list of all the fields it contains. Each table or field will only contain a description if your admin wrote something there.
If you click on a field of interest, you will see a description of the field's contents, as well as suggestions for queries based on that field.
If you click on a field you’re interested in, you’ll see a description of the field's contents as well as some suggestions for questions you could view about that field.
In addition to looking at a table's fields, you can also look at its connections if your table includes any. Click on **Connections** to view them (located next to **Field** button).
In addition to looking at a table's fields, you can also look at its connections if your table includes any. Connections show up here if there’s a field in the table you’re looking at that’s included in another table. Click on **Connections** (located next to **Field** button) to view the connected tables.
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## That’s it!
If you still have questions, or want to share Metabase tips and tricks, head over to our [discussion board](). See you there!
