Taking Your Data Analysis to the Next Level with Excel Dashboards

Introduction to Excel Dashboard Design & Development

Excel dashboards offer a wide range of creative possibilities for presenting data. They provide a platform for businesses to visualize their information in an efficient and meaningful way. Excel dashboards can be used to track projects, analyze performance, and even showcase visuals in both an intuitive and eye-pleasing format.

What is an Excel Dashboard?

An Excel dashboard is a graphical representation of data and information compiled from various inputs, such as QuickBooks, Salesforce, and CSV files. It typically consists of multiple pivot tables, charts, graphs, and other visuals. Dashboards are designed to make data and information more easily accessible, understandable, and interactive.

Benefits of Creating a Dashboard in Excel

Creating a dashboard in Excel has numerous advantages. It allows businesses to easily identify trends, monitor progress, and make informed decisions. Excel dashboards are also flexible, and can be customized to the user’s needs. Here are some of the key benefits of creating an Excel dashboard:

• Enhance data visualization
• Improve data accuracy
• Provide an interactive dashboard interface
• Easily control changes and customize features
• Allow for forecasting and projections

Understanding Excel

Excel is a powerful, versatile, and user-friendly software solution developed by Microsoft. It is a powerful tool for data analysis, visualizing data, creating complex business models, or designing complex interactive dashboards. Dashboards created in Excel allow users to interpret large sets of data quickly. With the right knowledge, anyone can utilize Excel to design a valuable dashboard.

Versions of Excel and Macros Compatibility

The versions of Excel available today have come a long way since their inception. Now, they have the capability to combine visual elements such as charts and tables with formulas, macros, and scripts to produce amazing dashboards. While some features are available only in latest versions of Excel, most of the features are supported in all versions. Despite the differences, each version provides powerful tools to let users develop complex and custom dashboards.

Data Sources and Inputs

Excel dashboards are made up of two types of data sources; internal and external. Internal data sources are manually entered or created within the workbook itself, while external data sources are obtained from other sources such as databases or websites. Excel dashboards can be connected to these external data sources to make data analysis more efficient.

Workbook Setup and Constraints

The set up of a workbook is an important factor in creating an effective dashboard in Excel. A few key elements to consider during the setup include formatting, order, and layout of data. Additionally, setting up the desired visual elements will greatly improve the ability to interpret the data in the dashboard. Additionally, it is important to understand the constraints of Excel when designing a dashboard; some of these constraints include limited color resources, the inability to set a custom “update” interval for data, and the inability to update charts without manual input.

Designing Excel Dashboards

Excel dashboards are a great way to look at data in a visual way and make it easier to assess and understand. Dashboards can help you make faster and smarter decisions depending on the information it presents. Knowing how to design an Excel dashboard gives users the power to better visualize data and more effectively interpret the information.

Organize Content and Layouts

The first step in designing a dashboard is to make sure the content is organized in a way that makes sense. Ideally, the content should be arranged in a logical order – this way, viewers can easily read and understand the data that is being presented in your dashboard. Good layout involves using colors, fonts and images to help structure the dashboard in a way that is understandable.

Functions and Formulas for Calculations

Once you have your content organized, you can use functions and formulas in Excel to create calculations that help present your data in a more meaningful way. For example, Excel has a wide range of functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, and IF that can help you generate metrics and calculations that can be used in your dashboard. This can help communicate complex information in an easy-to-understand format.

Visual Elements for Charts and Graphs

The last step in designing your dashboard is to incorporate visual elements, such as charts and graphs. Excel has many chart types that can be used to present data in a visual way. Charts and graphs can make it much easier to quickly understand the information being presented, instead of having to read through lines of data. Incorporating visual elements can also help you to focus the attention of the viewer on certain aspects of the data, so you can draw attention to the areas that are most important for decision-making purposes.

Data Curation for Excel Dashboards

Data Curation is a process of collecting, transforming, and organizing data from various sources to create an Excel dashboard. The data curation process involves gathering data from internal and external sources, filtering and validating data for accurate results and cleansing and restructuring for comprehensiveness and usefulness. In this section, we will discuss the various steps involved in data curation for Excel dashboards.

Data Filtering

Data filtering is the process of selecting data set by applying predetermined criteria to narrow down the data set and get useful information. Data filtering reduces time and effort to collect data, provide reliable sources, and get useful results. The criteria used to filter data can vary depending on what type of data it is and what type of insights are needed. Common filters used in data sets are geographic area, dates, customers, budget and many more.

Data Integrity and Validation

Data integrity and validation is the process of verifying if the data is accurate and consistent. Data validation methods include checking for inconsistencies in data types and formats, identifying outliers, and conducting tests to ensure data validity. Validated data ensures perfect accuracy of findings resulting from analysis and avoids misinterpretation of data. Validation must be done at the initial stage of data curation for reliable dashboard results.

Data Cleansing and Wrangling

Data cleansing and wrangling is the process of refining data and transforming it into a format that can be used by the dashboard. Wrangling involves organizing data by removing redundant or incorrect data and restructuring data into useful formats. Data wrangling techniques include combining and splitting data, manipulating numerical values, and formatting data into appropriate categories. Well cleansed and wrangled data ensures that the dashboard contains relevant and reliable data.

Presenting and Interacting with Your Dashboard

After you have created your Excel dashboard, the next step is presenting and interfacing with it. Dashboards interact with users by providing visual feedback and enabling quick decision-making. In order to deliver a successful Excel dashboard to your stakeholders, it is important to focus on interactivity and responsiveness, automation and refresh, and finally, publishing and distribution.

Interactivity and Responsiveness

Interactivity and responsiveness are key components of a successful Excel dashboard. Since it is a tool for making decisions quickly, a dashboard should provide users with the ability to interact with it, such as the ability to filter data or switch between different views. As users interact with your dashboard, the elements should respond accordingly and display meaningful visual feedback. This will enable users to quickly understand and act on the data presented.

Automation and Refresh

An important part of the Excel dashboard design and development process is setting up the automation and refresh process. This means that the dashboard will automatically update itself with the most current data so that users have access to the most up-to-date information. This ensures the accuracy of the data, eliminates manual update processes, and ensures that the dashboards remain useful and relevant.

Publish and Distribution

The final step in the process is to publish and distribute your Excel dashboard. The dashboard should be shared with the relevant stakeholders, whether they are internal or external users. This process should also include setting up permissions and access control in order to ensure that only the authorized users can view the data.

The publishing and distribution process should also include setting up notifications for when the data is updated. This ensures that stakeholders are notified whenever the data changes and ensures that they have access to the most up-to-date information.

6. Best Practices for Dashboard Design and Development

a. Documentation and Maintenance

Creating a dashboard in Excel is a complex task, and one of the best ways to ensure its accuracy and efficiency is proper documentation and maintenance. This includes documenting the design, processes, and protocols of your dashboard. Documentation should be maintained throughout the process, both to track its development and to serve as a reference that can be easily consulted when updating or troubleshooting the dashboard. Additionally, establishing a work-cycle of recurring updates and maintenance protocols to ensure that the dashboard is always current, accurate, and functioning properly should be implemented.

b. Performance and Optimization

When creating an Excel dashboard, it is important to consider performance and optimization from the start. The dashboard should be designed to have models and representational structures that make for quick loading of data and efficient calculations. Additionally, relying on VBA scripts or Macros to handle complex processes within the dashboard can help reduce calculations time and translate into better performance. It is also essential to consider user interaction and launch times, testing the dashboard with real users to ensure quick and intuitive response times.

c. Considerations for Security

Data security and protection should be a top priority when developing an Excel dashboard. Consider encryption, depending on the sensitivity of the data, and implementing a permissions system to restrict access only to those users with the appropriate credentials. Additionally, to protect dashboards in development, using automated backup and review processes can help track key points or issues during the development cycle, keeping them readily available for review in the event of any issues.

Conclusion

Excel dashboards are a powerful interactive data visualization tool. They can be used to inform all stakeholders of the performance of an organization and help drive decision making. They enable the presentation of a large amount of data in a meaningful way, with the ability to drill-down and investigate key areas at a deeper level.

In this introduction to Excel dashboard design and development, we have explored the basics of creating an effective dashboard with an example case study. We have covered the various components needed to create a comprehensive dashboard, including the data layer, layout and design, navigation, and data display. We have also looked at the various features and functionality offered through the use of different Excel features and functions.

Summary of Excel Dashboard Design & Development

Excel dashboards provide an effective way to communicate data-driven insights to stakeholders in an easily digestible manner. By gathering data from various sources, designing the visuals clearly and thoughtfully, and assuring that user navigation is clear and logical, organizations can ensure that their stakeholders are informed and able to quickly understand how the organization is performing.

Common Pitfalls and Further Learning Resources

The creation of effective Excel dashboards requires an understanding of the data being displayed as well as an eye for design. Some of the common pitfalls when creating Excel dashboards include incorrect data sources, poor visual design, and lack of interactivity. However, with practice and more in-depth knowledge, Excel dashboarding can be a very powerful tool.

To further develop your Excel dashboard design and development skills, there are numerous resources available online which provide insights and best practices. To name a few resources: The Dashboard Spy - Dashboard Design Resources, Data Visualization Modeling, and Dashboard Insights.