5 Principles of Effective Dashboard Design

Introduction

Dashboards are an essential tool for evaluating performance, monitoring operations, tracking KPIs, and providing an easy-to-understand view of complex data. A well-designed dashboard should be easy to read, simple to navigate, and visually appealing. By following a few simple design principles, you can create an effective and efficient dashboard to help you get the most out of your data.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of effective dashboards, as well as five design principles you can use to create an effective dashboard that meets your goals and objectives.

Benefits of an effective dashboard

• Provides a quick and intuitive view of your data
• Highlights areas of success and potential pitfalls
• Enables quick and informed decision-making
• Simplifies monitoring performance metrics and KPIs
• Gives users a visual representation of data

Five design principles for an effective dashboard

Planning

Before beginning to design a dashboard it is important to have a plan in place. This planning should include analyzing user requirements, defining objectives and KPIs, connecting data sources, and defining the visualizations and layout.

Analyze user requirements

Before anything else, you need to understand the dashboard’s users. You should research what they need a dashboard to do, what format they would like to see it in, and any other details that could be important. This will ensure that you can build a dashboard that meets all of the user’s needs.

Define objectives and KPIs

Once you know what the dashboard needs to do, you need to define the objectives and KPIs. These will help you measure progress toward the dashboard’s goals and also help determine what data needs to be included. It is important to focus on the most important KPIs and to ensure they are clear and easy to interpret.

Define data sources

The next step is to define the data sources for the dashboard. This may include internal data sources, external sources, or a combination of the two. It is important to ensure that all of the data is up to date and reliable. Additionally, you will also want to consider how often the data needs to be updated for the dashboard to be accurate.

Identify visualizations and layout

Finally, you need to consider what visualizations should be used in the dashboard. It is important to select visuals that are easy to interpret and simple to use. Additionally, you will also want to review your layout and make sure that it is intuitive and easy to navigate.

3. Usability

Dashboards should not just be visually appealing but easy to use as well. Usability should be a top priority when considering dashboard design.

a. Design for Accessibility

Designing for accessibility is especially important when creating a dashboard. Color contrast, font size, and other visual elements should be chosen with accessibility in mind. Additionally, the dashoard should be optimized for the various devices it will be viewed on. By doing this, those with disabilities can find the information they need in a more efficient manner.

b. Use a Consistent Structure

Using a consistent structure in your dashboard design allows for faster understanding and easier navigation for the viewer. Repeated elements such as buttons, texts, and iconography can all indicate where a user should navigate to receive particular information.

c. Keep it Simple and Concise

Dashboards with an information overload can be overwhelming and confusing to a user. It is important to display only necessary information and keep the design as simple as possible. The goal should be to display the main points of the data and nothing more. Additionally, it is important to follow a pattern when organizing information. This can be provided by using elements such as grids, guidelines, and white space.

4. Visualizations

When creating a dashboard, visualizations are essential. However, it's important to select appropriate visualizations and to ensure they are user-friendly and offer accurate insight into your data. Consider the following when using visualizations in your dashboard design.

a. Use Appropriate Visualizations

Choosing the right visualizations to represent your data is essential to ensure the information you are trying to convey is not lost in a confusing chart. Mainly, there are three types of visualizations: tables, charts, and graphs. Depending on the type of data being presented, selecting the appropriate visual will help users easily understand the information.

b. Consider Interactive Features

Interactive features enhance the user's experience and make the dashboard dynamic. Implementing interactive features, like filters and drill-downs, can help users find specific information quickly. Interactive elements are also beneficial when dealing with complex data or when users need to compare data across several categories.

c. Highlight Critical Information

Not all data is of equal importance, so it’s important to direct users’ focus towards the key information. Highlighting important metrics, such as using color to denote items of particular significance, will help users determine what is important right away.

5. Display

Developing a well-designed dashboard always starts with the display. To ensure that your dashboard is effective for the intended audience, design principles should be applied to the display. A few of these design principles are listed below.

a. Optimize Display Size

The size of the dashboard should be optimized for the display it will be viewed on. Widgets should have the proper size to prevent your dashboard from becoming overcrowded. Additionally, prompts and filters should be conveniently provided to allow users to drill down into the data on your dashboard when necessary.

b. Choose Appropriate Color Palettes

Humans are naturally attracted to and understand visual elements more easily when presented in color. Color should be used to differentiate between elements in your dashboard, and convey which elements are more important or relevant than others. Additionally, using a color palette that is consistent and aesthetically pleasing will help ensure your dashboard looks professional and well-crafted.

c. Use Grids and Lines for Structure

Creating structure on your dashboard is critical to helping users orient themselves when navigating the information. Using grids, lines, and boxes will help differentiate between widgets, create hierarchy, and provide a neat and visually appealing design.

Maintenance

Once the dashboard is built, it needs to be maintained to keep it operating smoothly and ensure that it is current. Dashboards can be a powerful tool, but they can become outdated quickly, unless they are correctly maintained. Below are some key considerations when it comes to the maintenance of dashboards.

Set up automated updates

To ensure that the dashboard is up to date, it is important to automate the updates where possible. This will reduce the amount of manual work and help to prevent errors. Automated updates also save time, allowing for new data to be added quickly and easily.

Document any changes

It is also important to document any changes that are made to the dashboard. This will help to ensure that the dashboard is updated accurately and any changes can be tracked. Documentation also makes it easier for someone else to maintain the dashboard, in case the original creator is not available.

Monitor feedback

Finally, it is important to monitor feedback from users of the dashboard. This will help to identify any problems and make any changes as needed. Regular feedback can help to ensure that the dashboard is effective and that any changes are being implemented correctly.

Conclusion

Designing an effective dashboard takes meticulous attention to detail and understanding the principles and best practices of dashboard design. When done properly, the benefits of using a dashboard to represent organizational data and aid in decision making are great. The 5 main principles of effective dashboard design are summarised below.

1. Visual Clarity

Visual clarity refers to the clear and concise presentation of data by making optimal use of fonts, graphics, and colours in a manner that is easily interpretable.

2. Simplicity and Brevity

The goal should be to maximise the “signal-to-noise” ratio. We should aim to provide users with only the most relevant information necessary to make decisions in a succinct fashion.

3. Alignment and Balance

The main components, data points, visualisations, and any other items should be aligned with each other and consistent, balanced, and proportional.

4. Consistency

Consistency is important to maintain the look and feel of the dashboard in order to ensure that users know that all the items in the dashboard are a part of the same set of data.

5. Storytelling

The summary, KPI, and metrics should all be designed in a manner that helps users quickly understand the data and encourage them to explore the insights

Recap principles of effective dashboard design

By keeping these five principles in mind, modern users can effectively design and produce effective and valuable dashboards.

Summary of benefits

An effective dashboard can help businesses and teams to quickly view, assess, and interpret important operations data, allowing for quicker decision making and improved performance.