Learn To Design and Develop Successful Dashboards

Introduction

Dashboard design is an important asset for business intelligence and data analysis as it provides detailed analytic information at a glance. It enables users to quickly make decisions and assess performance, connecting insights with objectives. Building an effective dashboard requires a comprehensive understanding of the data and the ability to represent it in a concise, actionable way. Excel is a powerful tool to create data visualizations that empower users to explore and interpret data.

Introduction to Dashboard Design

Excel dashboard design is a complex process. While it may look like a simple visualization of the data, there is a lot of complex analysis and design behind a successful dashboard. Dashboards need to be intuitive and provide an overview of the state of the data at a glance. Designers must carefully curate and select the data points to be shown and consider the best representation of the data as well as how style and colors will affect the overall look and feel of the final product.

Why Dashboards are Important

In order to make quick and informed decisions, users need to have an easy way to access data, interpret it and understand the underlying trends and patterns. Excel dashboards provide a means of displaying data in an organized and visually captivating way. Excel dashboards make complex data easier to digest and uncover valuable insights to inform decisions. It also increases the overall efficiency and accuracy by making data points accessible in a timely manner.

Overview of Dashboard Design

Excel dashboard design is a complex process but with proper planning, the right data, and some creativity, users will be able to create dynamic and engaging dashboards. When designing dashboards, it is important to consider the user’s needs, the data points that should be shown, the representation of data, and the overall layout and design. Visual cues such as colors and icons can also be used to draw attention to certain elements and increase engagement.

Develop an understanding of the data and user needs
Select the appropriate data points for the dashboard
Choose the best representation for the data
Design the overall dashboard layout and visuals
Utilize colors and icons to draw attention to specific elements

Demystifying Excel Dashboard Design and Development

2. Dashboard Design Features

Creating a dashboard user interface involves defining the purpose of the dashboard, understanding the data sources, choosing the right visualization techniques and organizing data into a meaningful way, such as tables, charts, sparklines, etc. The dashboard intelligence should be framed in such a way that users can quickly analyze the data and reach the desired insight.

a. Creation of Dashboard User Interface

Creating a successful user interface for a dashboard requires a few considerations from the developer. When designing a dashboard, developers should ask themselves the following questions:

What is the goal of the dashboard?
What data sources should be included?
What types of visualizations should be used?
How should the data be organized?

Asking these questions can help create an effective and comprehensive user interface, while meeting the goals of the dashboard design.

b. Creation of Dashboard Intelligence

The value of a dashboard lies in its ability to send the right message from data to the users. To create useful intelligence from the data, you must take into account all the data points and visualize them in meaningful ways. You need to paint the picture of each data set, show trends, and identify any outliers to give users an understanding of their data in a concise way.

For example, the best way to present sales performance data is by the use of charts, sparklines or graphs. You can also use tables to display calculated values or aggregated data.

c. Dashboard Development Challenges

Dashboard development may sound simple in concept; however, it can be challenging in practice. As with any design project, it requires careful thought and planning. There are many considerations a developer must take into account in order to ensure success, such as the dashboard’s purpose, how users interact with the dashboard, and how to create effective visualizations.

Developers must also be aware of the limitations of the dashboard, such as its flexibility to scale, the amount of data it can handle, and its responsiveness to user interaction. Challenges such as these must be taken into account during the design process to ensure a successful dashboard.

Understanding Dashboard Design Technique

Designing an effective data-driven dashboard is a complex task requiring research, skill, and an understanding of the concepts involved. In this chapter, we will explore the technique of designing an Excel dashboard so that the users can mine the data quickly and effectively.

Identify User Needs

The first step in developing an effective Excel dashboard is to understand the user’s needs. Consider the purpose of the dashboard, the user’s tasks, the types of data needed to perform those tasks, and the scope of the user’s analytics capability. This step should be undertaken before any data visualization design begins, as the final dashboard should reflect the user’s actual needs and requirements.

Visualize and Deploy Dashboard

Once the user’s needs are determined, the next step is to visualize the dashboard and deploy it. Visualizing the dashboard involves planning the structure, layout, and design of the dashboard to ensure that the user has all the information they need to successfully analyze the data. This should include deciding which graphics, charts, and other visuals to include in the dashboard, as well as the labels, descriptions, and other information.

Interaction and Drill-Down

The third step in creating an effective Excel dashboard is to set up tools and features to enable interaction and drill-down. These tools and features allow the user to explore and analyze the data more deeply by allowing for interactions with fields and objects on the dashboard. For example, a user might be able to click on a chart to drill down into more detailed information. This provides a more complete view of the data and enables the user to find more insights.

Ensure interaction and drill-down are set up with the right tools and features
Gives user more complete view of the data to conduct more detailed analysis
Provide user with further insights by allowing interactions with fields and objects

Dashboard Design Tools

Leveraging the Automated Feature of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is the industry standard for reporting, data analysis, and information management. The latest version of Excel offers advanced analytics, automated functions, and powerful spreadsheet capabilities to give users the best possible experience when designing and creating dashboards. Excel also allows for easy sharing of important data and analytics among colleagues and teams without any technical experience. Excel offers automated features that allow users to quickly stitch together components from different datasets and generate dynamic visuals in seconds. This means users can more quickly turn insights into actionable results, while saving valuable time.

Accessing the Power of Excel Macros and Visual Basic

For data professionals, Excel macros and Visual Basic are essential tools to create dashboards that are not only visually pleasing, but accurate and informative as well. Macros allow users to easily define and run intricate formulas, while Visual Basic provides the coding structure to create robust and custom formulas. Both of these features can be leveraged to create extraordinary dashboards and analytics that can provide actionable insights to solve complex business problems.

Employing the Analytics and Data Visualization Capabilities of Tableau

Tableau is a cutting-edge data visualization tool that provides advanced analytics capabilities for dashboard design. Tableau operates on top of the data layer and provides rich visual analytics and the ability to interact with and navigate the data in real-time. Tableau features a highly intuitive drag-and-drop schematics, allowing users to bring life to the dashboard design while offering a highly intuitive experience. The visual representation of the data offered by Tableau is the best way to explore and uncover the insights needed to guide business decisions.

Tableau offers a wide range of helpful analytics and data visualization capabilities.
Tableau's drag-and-drop schematics make dashboard design fast, simple, and user-friendly.
Tableau can provide a highly-detailed and visual representation of data that can be used to uncover actionable insights for business decisions.

Challenges of Dashboard Design & Development

Dashboard design and development can be a formidable task for any analyst or development team. Interpreting the client’s needs and then transforming them into a fully functioning dashboard solution is no small feat. Here we identify some of the common challenges associated with designing and developing a successful dashboard.

Identifying Appropriate Data Sources

The quality of any dashboard will depend heavily on the quality of the data it is based on. It is therefore essential that the right data sources are identified and correctly incorporated into the design. Collecting the right data may not be so straightforward as it can be difficult to identify the sources that can provide accurate, updated and relevant data sets. Once identified, data must also be cleaned, merged and structured to create the desired result.

Translating Business Requirements into Analytical Models

The data after being collected must then be translated into analytical models that can be used for drawing insights and measures. This includes converting qualitative and unstructured data sets into more structured format, which can be applied to structured programs like Excel. Creating algorithms (including developing functions and macros) that can be used for automating manual processes is also a key part of this. Aggregating multiple data sets can also be a challenge.

Addressing Issues with Complexity & Security

The dashboard must be intuitive to use, secure and stable. Developing the dashboard in such a way that it is not only easy to use, but also serves the purpose of the client is often a challenge. As the dashboard might contain sensitive information, the security of the dashboard also needs to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, depending on the complexity of data and design, making run-time performance optimisations can also be essential.

Ensuring compliance to privacy and security regulations.
Developing efficient back-end processes that can work with large complex data models.
Optimising the underlying database for improved performance.
Separating layout and logic for Ease of Maintenance & Troubleshooting.

Tips and Best Practices for Dashboard Design & Development

Creating visual dashboards with Excel can help you decipher complex datasets, build informative reports, and communicate data-driven insights to various audiences. Designing and developing a great dashboard requires more than just technical proficiency. Here are some tips and best practices to take into consideration for dashboarding with Excel:

Keep it Simple and Relevant

Simplicity is key when it comes to data visualization. Focus on presenting the most important metrics in an intuitive, easy-to-understand format. Design your dashboard to quickly and effectively convey actionable insights from your data. Keep only the necessary visualizations and avoid clutter.

Design for Mobility

Dashboards need to be accessible on both large and small screens, as audiences may pull up your dashboard on laptops, tablets, or mobile phones. Ensure that the design elements in your dashboard are mobile-friendly, including the appropriate sizing of buttons, fonts, and other graphics.

Utilize Automated Data and Charts for Faster Insights

Time is a precious commodity, which is why automated data and charts are the choice of many analysts and data scientists. With automated data and charts, you can bypass manual data entry for faster insights. Excel makes it easy to customize dashboards for individual needs and parameters as well through the use of automated tools.

Designing and developing an effective dashboard requires careful thought and planning. Keep these tips and best practices in mind for your next dashboard project, and how you can best leverage Excel to get the job done.

Conclusion

Excel dashboards are a powerful way to organize and track multiple sets of data simultaneously, enabling businesses to quickly gain insights and develop informed strategies. With a few simple steps, the design and development of your Excel dashboard can be demystified.

Summary of Dashboard Design & Development Strategy

Organizing the data and sources, followed by the data analysis and interpretation are the two main elements for creating an effective dashboard. Once this structural basis is laid, the remainder of the development process involves creating an aesthetically pleasing visual display that ensures maximum utilization of the dashboard.

Benefits of Dashboard Analysis for Business Decisions

Excel dashboards deliver compelling capabilities to manage and understand data with business decisions. By analyzing trends, patterns and correlations, the key insights generated can allow businesses to stay informed and informed.