Product Designer Tips For Impactful Dashboard Design

Q: What are the three key things you must do to create a great dashboard?

Three elements that make a good dashboard are as follows: - Know Your Audience: determine which content and level of information you will put on the dashboard. - Tell a story: intuitively show your findings, demonstrating the conclusions supporting your statement. - Leads to action: connects and answers questions.

Imagine using your favorite apps every day. Have you ever wondered how they display all the essential information on a single screen? Well, that’s all thanks to the dashboard! The dashboard design is like the heart of these apps, providing a quick and easy way to access crucial data, functions, and controls in one place.

You might think of a dashboard as just a visual element, but it’s so much more than that. It’s designed to be intuitive, making it effortless to find the most important information you need. Whether tracking your fitness progress, managing your finances, or staying up-to-date with your social media accounts, the dashboard keeps everything organized and easily accessible.

At Relevant, our team has been working on software development for over eight years. We’ve crafted numerous dashboards during this time, and it hasn’t always been easy. Designing a dashboard is no simple task – it’s one of the most complex aspects of digital design.

However, we pride ourselves on combining a seamless user experience with a visually appealing user interface. How? By embracing a minimalist and intuitive design approach for each dashboard we create. So, next time you use your favorite app, take a moment to appreciate the dashboard’s role in simplifying your experience and helping you stay on top of things.

Table of Contents

Recommended Course

Tips to Create a Best Dashboard Design

Strategize Your Dashboard Design for Optimal Results

When it comes to creating a dashboard, a strategic approach is essential. To start, fully understand the problem by examining existing reports and indicators used in them. Combine the best elements from these reports to develop a comprehensive solution.

Know your audience well before crafting your dashboard. Consider whether they are familiar with the topic or new to them. Identify what kind of information they require. For instance, analysts may need multiple data views, while operations managers seek immediate alerts for significant changes.

Before diving into the design phase, address critical questions. Reflect on the information architecture, maintain a visual hierarchy, and search the internet for inspiration. Check out examples of excellent dashboard UI designs, like SAP and Tableau dashboard designs, and explore the Figma dashboard design library for reusable templates.

Once you’ve settled on preferences and styles, tailor the dashboard to specific user needs.

Select the Right Dashboard Type

Choose from various dashboard types to suit your objectives:

Operational: For immediate monitoring and managing of operations.

Strategic: To display long-term business strategies and trends analysis.

Analytical: Enables in-depth data analysis with drill-down and drill-through functions over extended periods.

Specific: Customized dashboards focused on particular metrics or channels, like social media performance tracking.

Tactical: Assists in identifying growth opportunities based on departmental strengths and weaknesses.

Choose the Right Chart Type

Picking the right visualization tools is crucial for an effective dashboard UX:

Line charts: Ideal for showing data patterns and enabling quick analysis.

Histograms: Useful for comparing data within the same category.

Tables: Best for displaying large data sets, but avoid overwhelming users with excessive data.

Pie charts: Use sparingly, as they may confuse users with uneven data representation.

Consider plain text for the most relevant KPIs to make them stand out.

Be Thoughtful About What You Display

Efficiency and user-friendliness are key to a successful dashboard. Use these techniques:

Dashboard graphs: Easily compare different metrics and provide resizing and filtering options.

Tables: Place them at the bottom of the dashboard to facilitate comparisons of large datasets.

Cards and maps: Utilize for geographic or location-specific needs, offering both bird’s-eye and detailed views.

Timelines: Enable users to track metrics over time and use the x-axis for clear time representation.

Choose the Right Way to Display Data

A clear and logical layout is crucial for user understanding:

Divide data into three parts based on importance: key indicators at the top, followed by explanatory trends, and finally, in-depth details.
Include filters to give users control over data selection.
Offer a simple navigation menu and clear labels for easy data access.
By implementing these strategies, you can create an impressive dashboard UX design that resonates with users, providing valuable insights and enhancing their overall experience.

Simplify Your Design for a Modern Dashboard

One of the key principles of modern dashboard design is keeping things simple. A clean and straightforward interface is crucial to allow users to analyze information effortlessly. Organize your data into categories and use lines or boxes to separate the most important data from the less critical. Each section should have clear labels in easily readable fonts.

Minimalism is also important in colors and fonts. Stick to a simple design scheme with just two or three colors for visualization tools, and use a single font for each type of text. Consistency is vital, so ensure that all headings use the same font.

Embrace Interactivity

To create a standout dashboard, consider incorporating interactive elements. Animation can add life to data and images, offering a more engaging experience. An interactive “drill down” feature allows users to explore detailed dashboard information about specific items or variables without cluttering the entire screen.

Immediate Access to Critical Data

Your dashboard design should prioritize giving users quick access to the most crucial data. Adhere to the “5-second rule,” meaning all relevant data should be available within five seconds of loading the dashboard. This ensures that users can quickly access the most vital metrics they need during their workday.

Choose Colors Wisely

Incorporate design psychology principles while selecting colors for your dashboard. Maintain consistency in your color palette, considering design limitations and accessibility factors. Different colors represent categorically distinct data, such as a pie chart or a scatter plot with multiple variables.

Personalization Matters

A good dashboard becomes even more valuable when users customize and personalize it. The system can handle some personalization automatically, but it should also allow users to be identified and provided with content, features, or functionality that suits their role. Offering users the option to configure the dashboard empowers them to tailor the experience to their needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How’s the impactful dashboard going to be created?

Ans. While creating the dashboard, you must check the following parameters:

Be clear about what you’re trying to achieve.
Include only the most essential content.
Consider the data-ink ratio.
Round your numbers.
Use the most efficient visualization.
Group your related metrics.
Be consistent.

Q2. What are the three key things you must do to create a great dashboard?

Ans. Three elements that make a good dashboard are as follows:

Know Your Audience: Determine which content and level of information you will put on the dashboard.
Tell a story: intuitively show your findings, demonstrating the conclusions supporting your statement.
Leads to action: connects and answers questions.

Q3. What’s a good rule of dashboard design?

Ans. The data from your dashboard should be logically displayed. Ensure the data are shown in logical groups and you do not display them incorrectly. The top left-hand corner of your dashboard is where the eye will immediately go; as such, it is the most important part of the dashboard.

Q4. What are the main considerations that need to be considered when designing a dashboard?

Ans. There is a need to consider several factors, namely flexibility, target audience, simplicity, information, and so on, to develop effective and strategic dashboards.

Q5. What’s the rule on the dashboard in 5 seconds?

Ans. In about 5 seconds, you’ll see the required data on your dashboard. If you have many pressing business questions, your dashboard should be able to answer them quickly.