In this guide, we'll cover how to use Google Forms and Google Sheets to collect user-generated data, from quick polls to full-on questionnaires, and then visualize the data using the Spreadsheets data source in Geckoboard.
Step 1: Create a Google Form
If you’re already using Google’s G Suite, create a Google Form from scratch. Creating a new form will create a new Google Sheet that will collect any responses from your form. However, if you want to use a form to populate an existing Google Sheet, you can open up your spreadsheet and click Insert >> Form.
The next step is to build your Google Form to capture the information you want. You can use a template or create your own form from scratch.
Step 2: Collect responses
At this stage, you should notice a Responses tab, and the option to Create a spreadsheet. Click this, and you’ll generate a new Google Sheet that will automatically update every time someone fills out and submits your form. This Google Sheet will be used as the data source for your dashboard.
Step 3: Add raw form responses to your dashboard
The next step is to use our Google Sheets data source to visualize the information you’ve collected using your form. Select the spreadsheet containing your form’s responses, and you can now add raw responses to your dashboard.
Step 4: Generate metadata to add to your dashboard
Aside from seeing raw responses on your dashboard, you can also use simple functions in your spreadsheet to generate useful metadata to display on your dashboard, such as how many responses you’ve had in total, or how many times a particular option has been selected.
In the example below, we've used the COUNTIF function to calculate how many times each fruit was submitted. This information can then easily be turned into a bar chart in Geckoboard. For more inspiration, see this list of useful Google Sheets functions.
