At A Glance: A Roadmap In Creating Effective Dashboards
What are Dashboards?
Dashboards often provide an at-a-glance view of all your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) relevant to a particular objective or a business process. In the other words, dashboard is another name for a progress report or simply put — a report.
As they’re unique powerful tools for communicating important information at-a-glance, dashboards have become increasingly popular in recent years.
First things first.
Dashboards are not static reports. They need to be dynamic with a side of actionable analysis. There are certain criteria that a successful dashboard should check. A dashboard should show trends, growth and dips on a timeline basis and provide summaries of the same, sure. But a successful dashboard also provides analysis of the applicant’s data while allowing the users take action on it.
Further, a good dashboard also displays relevant information to the users, swiftly and lets the users customise it based on his needs, albeit to an extent.
Quick Principles For Effective Dashboard Design
While designing dashboards in STYLABS, there are certain guidelines that we adhere to. With roughly 6 points under it, these have been immensely useful to us in our STYLABS journey.
#Know Your Audience
A detailed understanding of your audience of your web application is a must to create an efficient dashboard. It should be designed to answer all the questions your user may have in mind. Ensure that you are aware of your intended audience, and that the data you display is relevant to your them. You must also be constantly abreast of the scope of their requirements. Because, when designed correctly, a dashboard will increase user productivity.
#The 5 Second Rule
An competent dashboard should provide the relevant information in about 5 seconds.
A dashboard should also be able to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) at a glance. If a user is scanning for any information for minutes, it could be an indication of a problem with the dashboard’s visual layout.
#The Inverted Pyramid
The inverted pyramid is the perfect graphic to by. Your most newsworthy info should take up the maximum space. This must be followed by other important details, with miscellaneous information taking up the background. The most significant insights must be displayed on the top part of the dashboard, trends in the middle, and the granular details at the bottom. This makes the inverted pyramid one of the most useful and used principle.
This concept originated from the world of journalism and has fetched recognition in various other fields as well. This is how information should be prioritised and structured.
#Minimalism: Less is More
Your dashboard should contain no more than 5–9 visualizations. Cognitive psychology tells us that the human brain can only comprehend around 2 to 7 at a time. So, this is the number of items you should want in your dashboard. Also, avoid unnecessary and irrelevant labeling and instructions. They do help in providing context, but if used excessively only add to the clutter and confusion of the user.
Too many colour swatches, palettes and combinations also tend to create difficulty for the viewers in digesting the data quickly.
For example when displaying revenue or a monetary amount.
Rs. 1,454,845.53 is complex and headache inducing.
On the other hand, Rs. 1.45 m is simple that leads to peace of mind.
In short, cluttered displays deflect the focus from important messages.
#Data Visualisation
While selecting data visualisation formats, it’s important to select the one that’s appropriate and relevant to its usage and purpose.
If you’re building a dashboard, you obviously want your user to digest data quickly. Hence, it’s important to have clear, well-planned data visualizations at hand. The visuals for every Key Performance Indicator (KPI) should inspire action on behalf of your user.
#Defining The Frequency Of Refreshing Data
Ensuring that your dashboard data is being refreshed at the right interval is very important. It helps in saving time during the development phase and can ensure optimal performance once the dashboard is live.
Conclusion
A steady rule that we follow at STYLABS is that before sitting for designing of the dashboard, we have a discussion with our end users. This is significant in gathering their requirements and defining KPIs. You may design the most beautiful dashboard in the world, but if it doesn’t change the way your users make decisions, then a successful dashboard it is not.
UX Designer, STYLABS.
