I would put it like this
An Xcelsius Dashboard is:
- a SWF (Flash) application (does not work on Apple devices)
- needs all data in an Excel grid
- is not very good for larger data sets, only summary level information
Design Studio:
- is Html5 ready (works on every device, mobile ready)
- designed to connect directly to source systems
- can publish reports on 2 integrated platforms: SAP BI Platform or SAP Netweaver Portal.
- yes, some scripting needed but it's graduately becoming more user friendly (see latest releases & the roadmap). If you are looking for a very easy, simple business-user tool to visualize data (BI self-discovery tool), please have a look at SAP Lumira!