The document provides an overview of dashboards and their key elements. It defines a dashboard as a visual interface that displays real-time metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable informed decision making. The five key elements of an effective dashboard are that they are simple to read, have minimal distractions, support business organization with meaningful data, apply principles of human visual perception, and are easy on the eyes. Dashboards consolidate data from multiple sources to provide an at-a-glance view of important metrics for objectives like sales, marketing, human resources or production.