Overview
Design is the authoring workspace inside Lens. It is where Lens Designers create and organize the assets that produce data insights on Dashboards: Projects, Sub-projects, Workbooks, Reports, Charts, Custom Scripts, Dimensions, and Filters. Design unifies data modeling and visualization in one workspace, so assets created here can reference shared definitions and data models without manual reconciliation.
Design is accessed from Lens → Design and is restricted to users holding the Lens Designer role on a tenant with an active Lens subscription. Every asset in Design lives inside a Project — there are no orphan Reports, Charts, or shared definitions outside a Project context.
When to use it
- A new analytical workstream needs its own organized container — create a Project.
- A team needs to subdivide an existing Project by team, region, or topic — use Sub-projects.
- Multiple Reports and Charts share a context (a quarter, a campaign, a domain) — group them in a Workbook.
- A reusable dataset is needed for repeated analysis — author it as a Custom Script.
- Definitions of categories or filter criteria need to stay consistent across Reports — define Dimensions and Filters at the Project level.
Asset hierarchy
Design organizes work in a containment hierarchy. Containers hold other containers and assets; assets hold the configuration that produces output.
| Project | Container | Top-level container for related work. Every Design asset lives within a Project. |
| Sub-project | Container | Optional named subdivision of a Project, used for organizational clarity in larger Projects. |
| Workbook | Container | Container that groups Reports, Charts, Custom Scripts, Dimensions, and Filters that share a working context. |
| Report | Asset | Structured output that presents data insights. Visible on Dashboards when the Show in Dashboard checkbox is enabled. |
| Chart | Asset | Visual representation of data for trend and pattern analysis. Charts are Workbook-level assets or always authored inside a Report. |
| Custom Script | Asset | Reusable multi-dimensional dataset that other Reports and Charts can reference. |
| Dimension | Asset | Defined category for grouping or aggregating data. |
| Filter | Asset | Reusable criterion that narrows data to a relevant subset. |
Asset definitions
| Report | A structured output configured by a Lens Designer in Design. Reports are the unit of audience-facing publishing — they appear on Dashboards (subject to the Show in Dashboard checkbox) and are the primary objects governed by Security Tags. |
| Chart | A visual representation of one or more data series. Used for trend identification, comparison, and pattern analysis. |
| Custom Script | A reusable, multi-dimensional dataset authored in Design. Custom Scripts package data preparation logic so multiple Reports can draw from the same shaped output without duplicating definitions. |
| Dimension | A defined category used to group, partition, or aggregate data. Dimensions defined at the Project level can be reused by every Report and Chart in the Project. |
| Filter | A reusable criterion that narrows a dataset to a relevant subset. Filters defined at the Project level can be applied to multiple Reports without redefinition. |
Key behaviors
Project-scoped reuse. Dimensions, Filters, and Custom Scripts defined at the Project level can be referenced by any Report or Chart within that Project. This is the mechanism that keeps category definitions and filter criteria consistent across the Project’s Reports.
Data Models feed Design. Reports, Charts, and Custom Scripts query data through the Data Models defined on connectors. A Designer selects a Data Model when authoring an asset; the Data Model determines which tables and joins are available.
Show in Dashboard controls publication. A Report exists in Design as soon as it is saved, but its presence on Dashboards is governed by the Show in Dashboard checkbox. This is the standard mechanism for staging a Report in Design before exposing it to viewers.
Security Tags govern Report visibility. Security Tags created in Lens are attached to Reports during Design. The tags’ Report Access Options determine which users can open the Report on their Dashboard. Tag attachment is a Design-time decision; runtime enforcement happens at Dashboard load.
Organization scope. Design assets belong to the organization the Designer is signed in to. Reports, shared definitions, and Custom Scripts are not visible outside that organization. Filter-type Configuration Parameters set at the organization level apply automatically to Reports viewed by users in that organization.
Custom Script as the platform term. Custom Script is the platform-wide name for reusable multi-dimensional datasets in Design. Older documentation or training material may use other terms; “Custom Script” is the term used in the UI and in current documentation.