The Art of Dashboarding: Getting Inspirations and Creative Ideas

8 min readJan 29, 2023

In this article, I try to share how I solve the problem that almost every data professional faces while looking to build their next visualization: getting inspiration and improving creative thinking.

I shared my process for finding inspiration in data visualization, getting to know yourself and your creative process, and also provided resources to help you learn new things and see things from a different perspective. I even shared some tips I received from reaching out to experts in the data visualization field.

Let’s dive right in!

Ever come across a dataset and wondered how best to visualize the insights hidden within it? Perhaps you know deep down that this is something you’d like to work on, but you struggle with choosing the right chart or how to best represent the information visually. Your biggest wish may be to see if someone else has done something similar and how it turned out.

For the purpose of this article, I have decided to divide the types of dashboards you could be working on into two broad categories:

Business Dashboards
Creative Visualizations.

Categorizing them into these two broad categories does not mean that building a business dashboard isn’t a creative process, but I will try to define the two and provide some context.

A business dashboard tends to be interactive and aims to visually display or present data in a clear, concise, and actionable way. They are typically used to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and other important business metrics in real-time, allowing users to quickly identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.

Creative visualizations, on the other hand, are designed to be more visually engaging and can be used to communicate complex data in an easy-to-understand way. They can take many forms, such as infographics, charts, and maps, and can be used to tell stories and make data more relatable.”

Yes, I know the definitions are quite similar but like I said, the categorization is done mainly to aid easy understanding of this article and the main focus of any visualization or dashboard built is to make sure the audience can make use of it and understand what exactly is being communicated.

Let’s focus on the categories and discuss how and where you can get inspirations for the next dashboard you want to have in your portfolio.

Getting Inspirations and Creative Ideas for Your Business Dashboard

Every business dashboard aims to answer business questions or address concerns that stakeholders or users of the dashboard have. Your dashboard could range from an HR Attrition dashboard to a Call Center dashboard, but how do you find consistent ways and ideas to display business information while keeping your design game on the cutting edge? The following resources have helped me over time and would be of great use to anyone looking to build a business dashboard soon as well.

Tableau Public Page (Business Dashboard Category): This page has a plethora of business dashboards for anyone looking to get inspiration for their next projects. You can also select any profile to see more work done by individuals. The page is a veritable treasure trove of visualizations

A screenshot showing the Tableau Public Page containing Business Dashboard visualizations — Tableau Public Page for Business Dashboards

Dribble: Dribble is a community of designers, developers, and creative professionals who share their work and receive feedback. You can harness the power of Dribbble for business dashboard ideas and inspiration by simply searching for the term “Business Dashboards.” You will see many ideas by people mostly in the UI/UX field and can then bring them to life as visually pleasing and interactive visualizations.

A screenshot showing the Dribble Page containing Business Dashboard visualizations and ideas — Dribble Page for Business Dashboards

Following the Tableau Public portfolio pages of people that regularly put out business dashboards: The world of visualization has many talented and creative people who regularly produce business dashboards or offer tips on the best charts to use, redesigning your dashboards, and designing a good layout for your visualizations. The Tableau #datafam community has many amazing individuals, but here are a few that consistently produce business-related dashboards or charts: Andy Kriebel, Ellen Blackburn, Chimdi Nwosu, Pradeep Kumar. G, Samuel Parsons, Kevin Flerlage, Ken Flerladge, Luke Stanke, and many others. One tip is to check out the following pages of these individuals and try to follow as many people as they follow in order to see their work and learn from it.
Josh Tapley’s Tableau Public Cerebro Project: This visualization is one of a kind! It allows you to search based on any inputted text for any type of dashboard you are trying to gain inspiration from on Tableau Public. I highly recommend it!

Whenever you see a visualization that you like or that impresses you, don’t just scroll away. Save that image immediately! Bookmark that dashboard or tweet! Save the visualization on LinkedIn! Favorite the dashboard on Tableau Public!
Create a folder or an album and add the pictures or links to that visualization there. Treat them like antiques and prized collections. You never know which visualization will inspire your next project!

Driving the idea and imagination for your next creative visualization

Creative visualizations are more tailored to defining the story you want to tell with the data, how you want to tell it, and which chart works best for telling this story. I would consider this category as one where you can experiment with different types of charts and learn the best one to use depending on the insights you are trying to visualize and share.

Here are some ideas and ways to gain inspiration and improve your creativity:

Chart guide Websites: These websites typically do a great job of showcasing different types of charts and when it is best to use them in your visualizations. A few examples of chart guide websites include: Financial Times Visual Vocabulary, Chart.Guide Chart Chooser, The Data Visualisation Catalogue, The Tableau Chart Catalog, The Data Viz Project, The Visualization Universe
The Tableau Public Discover Page: This page has a lot of beautiful and creative visualizations done by exceptional people in the data visualization community. You can take inspiration from vizzes done on several topics, such as: Public Sector, News and events, Education, Resumes, Environment and Biodiversity, Healthcare, Maps, Social Impact, Non-Profits and Foundations, Arts and Culture, and even Sports and Fitness.

Information is beautiful: Information is Beautiful is a website dedicated to making sense of the world through graphics and data visualizations. On the homepage of this website, you can explore amazing visualizations and gain inspiration for your next project. You can also search for visualizations related to any particular topic you have in mind.

RESOURCES

I will be sharing some of the resources that I personally use every day to improve my data analysis and visualization skills. I hope that in some way, you will find something new that you love and can learn from.

Blogs

The list is inexhaustive. To see a more detailed breakdown of blogs, social data initiatives, and data podcasts, check out this page by Toan Hoang here.

Twitter Hashtags and Challenges to partake in

Quotes from the #Datafam

I experiment a lot with design, colors, chart types, etc. I also take a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and Behance. Sometimes, I try to replicate the same in Tableau.
Some of my works are successful, and others are not. That said, I ask for feedback from my friends, colleagues, and members of the datafam community on how they perceive my visualization and what can be improved.
I do not follow a strict layout or design template; instead, I experiment with a lot of options and possibilities. Every single visualization in my Tableau profile was finalized after many design attempts, iterations, etc.
-Pradeep Kumar G.

Your creative design style is subjective and depends on how much you try to make your design stand out. The main thing for anyone is to always try to visualize things in their own way, because experimenting is fun! For some, emulating what someone else has done, and adding their own spin to it, is a good enough strategy.
Generally speaking, I will choose the story I want to visualize first. Next, I explore the available charts. Referring to a chart catalog helps here. After deciding on the chart, I’ll try to use design to make it stand out as much as possible. I find this is where people get to showcase their individual design styles. When a specific question is asked, then having a clear answer with supporting data points is necessary. If we are introducing an idea, then it should be clear enough and supported by the visuals we’ve presented.
-Chimdi Nwosu

Okay, let me tell you my process. Initially, I spent the most time on calculations, LODs and table calcs and all that but that’s what businesses primarily want. Over time, I began appreciating beautiful vizzes and the creative use of Tableau. Of course, I started participating in #MakeoverMonday but that wasn’t enough. So I started noting down vizzes that I wanted to recreate or learn from.
I look at a lot of #VizOfTheDay for inspiration. Almost every day. I don’t always viz but I note down styles used, I think about how it was done and I move on. I like designing on what I’m passionate about. That motivates me to learn new, creative ways. Since discovering the Flerlage twins ‘Going Beyond Show Me’, I wanted to create more data art using unconventional charts etc.
-Tobi Williams Babatunde

The question of ‘the right chart for the right data’ is one of the most difficult to give a perfect answer to. However, I believe that having a clear idea of what you want to convey to your audience can help you filter through many charts and choose the best one for your purpose.
As a data analyst, it is important not to rush into the dashboard creation process. It’s important to find a way to design a prototype of what you want to build, whether it be on a piece of paper or using tools such as Figma, Canva, or Microsoft Powerpoint. With experience comes a lot of knowledge and the ability to quickly find solutions to problems faced.
-Idris Akilapa

Conclusion

The art of creating dashboards involves inspiration, creative ideas, and final visualizations. Having resources to turn to and learning from other data professionals’ experiences can greatly improve your skills and make you an expert in no time. This article is a long read, but I hope you were able to learn something new to add to your toolkit.

Gbolahan is a data analyst with a strong background in SQL, Excel, Tableau and Power BI. He is skilled in using data analytics to drive informed decision-making and improve business processes. He also has a passion for turning complex data sets into clear and visually stunning insights.
Let us connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.
You can also check out my portfolio here, as I am open to data analyst roles and positions.