It’s often said that knowledge is equal to power. While it isn’t possible to apply this statement in a universal sense (and, in fact, it’s somewhat cliché), the notion highlights a crucial truth regarding today’s digital world: consumer values are continually evolving. Data has never been more readily accessible. Approaches to communication are changing, and success in today’s technology-driven world correlates directly to the quantity rather than the quality of one’s information — metrics relating to the company, the client, the competitor, and the market. But, IT departments no longer hold exclusive access to information. With BI dashboards, the knowledge is spread across the company, empowering every user to create their own interactive reports, utilizing data visualization, and spreading the knowledge with internal and external stakeholders.
The rise of innovative, interactive, data-driven dashboard tools has made creating effective dashboards swift, simple, and accessible to today’s forward-thinking businesses. However, while the tools are user-friendly and make creating stunning dashboards easier and faster, the dashboarding process still requires some level of understanding about design techniques and methods that will make them visually appealing, intuitive, and useful for decision-makers. Enter the world of dashboard design and its principles.
At this point, you have already tackled the biggest chunk of the work – collecting data, cleaning it, consolidating different data sources, and creating a mix of useful KPIs. Now, it’s time for the fun part. Unfortunately, you can’t play around with designs like the next Picasso. Certain best practices in dashboard design should be followed to display your data correctly, making it easy to analyze and actionable.
To help you on your journey to data-driven success, we’ll delve into 25 design principles that will ensure you develop the most comprehensive dashboard for your personal and business needs.
But before we get started, we’ll discuss the importance of working with a professional business intelligence dashboard and examine a few reasons why efficient dashboard design is critical for analytical success.
In today’s data-driven business environment, dashboards and reports are essential for monitoring performance and making smart decisions. But with so much information available, creating useful, actionable dashboards is an art.
Follow these 15 best practices to build dashboard reports that clearly communicate key insights and drive better outcomes
Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals
First, clarify your overarching business objectives Determine the metrics that indicate progress toward each goal. Effective dashboards connect to strategic goals, so start by getting crystal clear on what you’re aiming to achieve.
Apply the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. framework:
- Specific and Strategic – Align to a clear business objective
- Measurable – Quantify progress with data
- Actionable – Enable insights-driven decisions
- Relevant – Connect to audience and goals
- Time-bound – Update frequently with new data
- Engaging – Visually interesting and intuitive
- Reliable – Accurate data from trustworthy sources
Define Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Once goals are established, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track. Limit yourself to 3-5 critical metrics per dashboard. Too many KPIs overcomplicate analysis.
For each KPI, determine:
- The business issue or goal it addresses
- How it will be calculated
- The frequency of measurement
- Data source(s)
- Target benchmark(s)
- Who is responsible for monitoring
Document all KPI metadata so viewers understand meaning and context.
Identify Data Stakeholders
Determine who will use dashboard insights for decision-making. Talk to stakeholders early in the design process to understand:
- Their goals and key objectives
- The types of decisions they need to make
- Metrics and data points they rely on
- Challenges accessing and analyzing data
Incorporate their needs into the dashboard requirements. Continue engaging with them to gather feedback throughout development.
Understand the Different Dashboard Types
There are 4 main dashboard types, each optimized for certain goals:
Strategic: High-level view of enterprise KPIs. Help executives identify risks and opportunities.
Operational: Focused view of departmental metrics. Help managers monitor tactics and processes.
Analytical: Ad hoc analysis of specific data points. Help users explore trends and root causes.
Monitoring: Real-time data on systems health. Help technical teams track issues.
Consider dashboard purpose and audience goals to select the right type. Most organizations need a combination.
Borrow Inspiration from Other Brands
Don’t start from scratch. Research dashboards from other companies and teams to find designs and formats that work well.
Look for elements you can replicate or adapt:
- Effective visualizations of specific data types
- Creative layouts and color palettes
- Clear presentation of metrics and insights
- Interactivity features
Borrowing proven design patterns will make your dashboard more effective.
Choose the Best Dashboard Software
With the right tools, dashboard creation becomes much simpler. Evaluate software against needs like:
- Data connectivity and visualizations
- Customizable templates and themes
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Dynamic filtering and segmentation
- Access controls and permissions
- Alerts and notifications
- Mobile optimization and offline access
Look for a platform that empowers users to build and consume dashboards easily.
Consider Your Team’s Hardware
Factor in how dashboards will be physically viewed when selecting charts, colors, and text sizes.
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Will stakeholders access dashboards primarily via desktop monitors, laptops, tablets, or phones?
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What dimensions and resolutions should be accommodated?
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Do displays need to work in dark rooms, outdoors, or other challenging environments?
Testing dashboards on target devices is highly recommended.
Build Dashboards with Templates
Many dashboard tools include templates or themes to accelerate development. Take advantage by:
- Browsing template libraries for designs that fit your use case
- Importing a template to quickly generate starter layouts
- Customizing the template with your own color palette, fonts, logos and styling
- Inserting charts, filters, and analytics tailored to your data
Templates provide a running start so you can focus on content.
Structure Dashboards Thoughtfully
Well-organized dashboards guide viewers to insights easily. Some tips:
- Group related data vizualizations into tabs or sections
- Arrange KPIs strategically – place important ones prominently
- Ensure there is ample “white space” between elements
- Be consistent in layout, style, terminology across views
- Use concise titles and captions to orient users
Sound structure sets the stage for dashboard success.
Limit Color Variety
Color is pivotal for making data pop. But restraint is advised. Stick to a maximum of 5 colors per dashboard. Rely on subtle hue variations.
Reserve bright colors for highlighting outliers or thresholds. Standardize colors for common metrics across views.
Design for Scannability
Dashboards should enable fast data scanning. Optimize for skimmability:
- Summarize top insights in headlines
- Use concise bullet points instead of paragraphs
- Show trends with simple, bold charts rather than tables
- Align captions directly next to corresponding data vizualizations
- Use consistent designs so viewers know where to look
Draw attention to what matters most.
Add Interactivity
Engage users by making dashboards explorable. Interactive elements to consider include:
- Hover-over tooltips revealing data point details
- Filters enabling users to dynamically segment data
- Drill-downs for navigating from overview to specifics
- Cross-filtering linking data across visualizations
- Alerts that notify users of threshold breaches
Input controls empower self-service analysis.
Automate Updates and Delivery
Manual dashboard refresh stalls access to real-time data. Instead, configure automated scheduling:
- Set dashboards to refresh data connections on a timed interval
- Build a workflow for delivering PDF exports via email
- Use push notifications to alert mobile users of changes
- Embed dashboards in apps and portals for always-current visibility
Automation provides access to dashboards on-demand.
Simplify Data Analysis
Don’t just display data – summarize what it means. Help users quickly grasp performance and trends by:
- Calling out top insights in dashboard subtitles
- Using arrows, shapes, and color to indicate directionality
- Incorporating sparklines showing data changes over time
- Adding alerts when KPIs cross thresholds
- Providing recommended actions for results analysis
Interpret and annotate data to simplify analysis.
Improve Dashboards Iteratively
Solicit frequent user feedback to guide optimization. Ways to collect input:
- In-app comment buttons
- Surveys on design, utility, features
- Task observation studies
- Stakeholder interviews
- Dashboard usage data
Continuous improvement will ensure maximum value over time.
Deploying well-designed dashboards unlocks data-driven decision making. Applying these best practices will help you build reports that inform, engage, and empower. What other dashboard tips would you add? Please share your experiences in the comments below!
1 Be consistent with labeling and data formatting
Number 14 on our list of tips on how to design a dashboard is focused on clarity and consistency. Above all else, in terms of functionality, the main aim of a data dashboard is to gain the ability to extract important insights at a swift glance. It’s critical to make sure that your labeling and formatting are consistent across KPIs, tools, and metrics. If you’re formatting or labeling for related metrics or KPIs is wildly different, it will cause confusion, slow down your data analysis activities, and increase your chances of making mistakes. Being 100% consistent across the board is paramount to designing dashboards that work.
We will go into more detail with white labeling and embedding in some other points, but here, it’s important to keep in mind that the dashboard design methodology should be detailed and well-prepared to generate the most effective visuals. That includes clear formatting and labeling.
Determine your goals
The next dashboard UI design principle establishes a direct relationship between the user’s needs and the purpose of the dashboard, which is to establish your ultimate goals. Indeed, knowing who your readers will be will help you focus on specific aspects of the data that are relevant to them, to their needs, which matches their expectations and technical skills. To do so, you can schedule phone or face-to-face interviews with different stakeholders to consolidate their reporting requirements.
Whether you are creating a client report or an internal report, each one will serve a purpose and answer key questions through the data. Here, it is key to consider that not all the data available will be useful for the analysis process and that getting this part of the process wrong can render your further efforts meaningless.
To get this step right, you need to carefully consider what metrics and data sets will bring value to the goals that you want to be measured or achieved with this dashboard. Answering questions like; What exactly needs to be measured? Who will measure it? What is the time interval to be measured? Might point you in the right direction. The data analysis questions you’ll ask will provide a framework and allow you to focus on specific aspects of your performance – and that’s when the KPIs come in. Pick the ones that translate your company’s status better and measure your process’s evolution towards your goals. More on that in the following point!
12 Dashboard design tips for better data visualization
What data should be included in a dashboard report?
Key performance indicators ( KPIs): On the same dashboard report, include the KPI data for each product. This may include service issues, customer satisfaction ratings, and overall production costs. Real-time updates: Dashboard reporting is dynamic.
What makes a good dashboard report?
The right dashboard reporting tool simplifies the process and integrates necessary data into accurate reports. It visually communicates critical metrics in a graphical format. The right tool will support testing and modifying your dashboard reports to adapt to changes. What does a good dashboard report look like?
What tools are available for Dashboard Reporting?
· Klipfolio: A cloud-based dashboard and reporting tool that lets you connect to multiple data sources and create custom dashboards with real-time data. These are just a few examples of the many tools available for dashboard reporting.
Why is dashboard reporting important?
Whether measuring time to market, product quality, or customer satisfaction, dashboard reporting provides teams with uniform information to assess overall performance. It gives teams the tools to recognize important performance trends and identify opportunities and concerns. Keep everyone engaged with interactive, user-friendly dashboard reporting.
