Dashboard Design Principles¶
Designing dashboards is a different beast as it involves a combination of different visualisation that interact and tell a story in tandem.
Sisense’s Principles¶
Sisense provides 4 key principles of a good dashboard.
1. 5 Second Rule¶
Your dashboard should provide users with an immediate understanding of the data, as well as the relevant information in 5 seconds.
2. Logical Layout: Inverted Pyramid¶
Display the most significant insights on the top part of the dashboard, trends in the middle, and granular details in the bottom.
3. Minimalist¶
Do not put too many charts in a single dashboard. Note to have a low data-ink ratio.
Chole’s Principles¶
In her book, Storytelling with Data, Chole provide a more detailed list of six principles. Note that her principles are not specific to dashboarding so not all portions are relevant, e.g., storytelling.
1. Understanding the Context¶
Have a good understand of who you are communicating to, what you need them to know, how you will communicate with them, and what data you have to back up your case.
2. Choose Appropriate Visualisation¶
Simple text is the best when highlighting a number or two. Know
3. Eliminate Clutter¶
As with above by Sisense.
4. Focus Attention on the Important Parts¶
Employ retinal encoding and preattentive attributes like color, size to signal what is important. Draw attention on where you want your audience to look and guide your audience. Evaluate the effectiveness by applying the “where are your eyes drawn?” test.
5. Think Like a Designer¶
Aesthetics, minimalist, and think how to engage the audience with visual cues.
6. Tell a Story¶
Craft a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.