Best Practices for Building Interactive Dashboards in Excel

Introduction

An interactive dashboard is a type of data visualization that allows users to explore and analyze data sets to learn more about their data and develop insights. They are a convenient way to organize, compare and understand large amounts of data. When built properly, interactive dashboards can provide a visual overview of key insights and business intelligence that allow teams to make more informed decisions.

Using Excel to build interactive dashboards is a great way to make the data more accessible to the entire organization. Creating a dashboard in Excel provides users with the ability to customize their views, filters, and sorting. Additionally, using Excel eliminates the need for software investments or extra coding. Any user with minimal Excel knowledge can create interactive dashboards in Excel.

There are several best practices one must consider when building interactive dashboards in Excel. This blog post will provide an overview of the best practices for creating an effective interactive dashboard.

Strive for Simplicity

When creating an interactive report or dashboard in Excel, you should strive for simplicity. Using too many charts and too much data can decrease the effectiveness of the dashboard, making it hard to visualize the big picture.

Choose the Correct Chart Types

It is important to select chart types that are appropriate for the data you are displaying. The wrong chart type can lead to misinterpretations of the data. For example, bar graphs should be used when comparing two or more groups, while scatter plots are used when analyzing the relationship between two variables.

Design for Readability

A dashboard should be easy to read and understand. The layout should be clean and uncluttered, with plenty of blank space between different elements to make them easier to identify. Additionally, elements such as titles, labels and annotations should be clearly labeled, so viewers know exactly what is being shown.

Limit Data Presented in the Dashboard

It is important to limit the amount of data presented in the dashboard. Include only the most important data and try to avoid large tables or repeated data. Keep the dashboard focused on presenting the key points in a clear, concise way.

Utilise the Built-in Functions

Dashboards are an essential piece of an efficient business and organization. There is a range of methods, applications, and solutions available to create a dashboard. One of the most popular solutions is to use Excel. In order to make the most of your dashboard and carry out the best practices for creating interactive dashboards in Excel, it is essential to understand the built-in functions.

Slicers

Slicers are visual filters for most of the data fields in a list or table. They are especially useful over large data sets, allowing the user to easily filter the data to only focus on a specific area or data points. You can add a slicer in your dashboard by going to the 'Insert' tab, selecting 'Slicer' and then selecting the data field you want to filter.

Power Query

Power Query is a powerful data transformation tool. It enables the user to load, transform, and shape the data in order to gain insights. To use this tool, you need to go to the 'Data' tab and select the “Data Analyze” group. From here, you can select the “Power Query” option and begin to transform your data.

What-If Analysis

What-If Analysis is a powerful tool which allows the user to test out different scenarios before making a business decision. This tool can be accessed by going to the “Data” tab and selecting the “What-If Analysis” group. From here, you can select the model you want to analyze, such as “Goal Seek” or “Data Table”.

Create a Clean Data Set

Building interactive dashboards in Excel begins with creating and managing a clean data set. This clean set of data will serve as the foundation of the dashboard, and will determine its effectiveness. As such, you need to prioritize formatting, establishing naming conventions, and review data integrity to ensure the accuracy of the dashboard.

Formatting

Using consistent formatting in the data set will go a long way in making the data easier to interpret. You should start by formatting key columns and fields, such as currency or various formats for dates. Furthermore, adjusting the width of columns and removing empty cells will also help make columns and rows easier to read. With a consistent format of data, your dashboard will look professional and be easier to read.

Naming Conventions

Assigning naming conventions to each column and field of data is also important for making your dashboard an easier tool to use. By setting a unified name or label for each element, you can create an orderly dashboard that is more accessible to all users. As such, uniform names should be used across all data sets, such as sales price as opposed to SP, SPrice, or SalePrice.

Data Integrity

In order to create a reliable dashboard, data integrity is essential. Data integrity in this case refers to the accuracy and reliability of the data feed. This is achieved by removing entries that are inaccurate or contain errors, as well duplicated entries. Additionally, reviewing formulas and formulas links can help ensure that all data is reliably connected and up to date.

Allow for Expansion

When building an interactive dashboard in Excel, there is great usefulness in allowing for expansion and scalability.

Building on Existing Work

Utilizing past calculations and models, building upon previous accomplishments to make a great informative dashboard in Excel is essential. Low level dashboards can easily become so much more when useful prior work is accounted for, making them not only more informative, but more efficient.

Allow for What-if Scenarios

Considering what the possible outcomes of any given situation may be is key in the world of Excel interactive dashboards, and the more what-if scenarios that are built into the dashboard, the more expansive it can be. This is a great tool that can be used to give an in depth look into what may result with any given transaction.

• Utilize existing work for added efficiency
• Build what-if scenarios for optimal interactive understanding
• Allow for expansive and expansive data analysis

Test and Validate

When creating interactive dashboards in Excel, it is important to make sure all elements of the dashboard work as intended. Testing and validating that all worksheets are integrated and functioning properly is essential before deployment.

Test Individual Worksheets

Start with individual worksheets and ensure each is functioning properly. This includes making sure all formulas are correct, chart visualizations are working, and connections to external data sources are secure. Run reports to validate data accuracy, and observe any calculated values are as expected. All user interaction points should be working properly, such as sorting, filtering, dynamic selections, and scenarios. List test scenarios with expected results and confirm they are happening correctly with each release and during bug testing.

Test the Entire Dashboard

Once the individual elements of the dashboard have been validated, begin the process of testing the entire dashboard. Start by launching and interactively navigating the dashboard, testing buttons and making sure the user experience is smooth and intuitive. Run all test scenarios again within the dashboard environment to ensure all external references and connections are functioning properly.

In some cases, teams and stakeholders may also want to validate accuracy by running reports on combined data. Stress test the dashboard by pulling large amounts of data and ensure charts retain their formatting and the overall dashboard is still functioning.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed five best practices for building interactive dashboards in Excel. These practices are perfect for creating visually appealing and user-friendly dashboards. By embracing these practices, you can ensure that your dashboard provides meaningful and actionable insights for data-driven decision making.

The five best practices discussed are:

• Creating modifiable and dynamic dashboards
• Using multiple sheet approaches
• Simplifying data management
• Improving usability with VBA
• Making the most of userforms

We hope this article has inspired you to create your own custom interactive dashboards in Excel. Don’t forget to explore the vast possibilities that Excel offers in order to make your dashboard as impactful as possible. Best of luck in your dashboard building endeavors!