Data & Analytics
Building a Dashboard People Actually Use
Most dashboards are graveyards of well-intentioned charts. Here is how to build one that changes decisions.
Start from the decision, not the data
The common failure is building a dashboard around what data is available rather than what decision needs support. This produces a wall of charts with no point of view. Instead, begin with the specific decisions the audience makes and work backward to the few numbers that inform them.
A dashboard should answer a question its viewer actually asks. If a chart does not help someone decide something, it is decoration, and decoration is exactly what makes dashboards get abandoned.
Ruthlessly limit what you show
The instinct to include everything relevant produces a cluttered dashboard where the important signal drowns in a sea of secondary metrics. Discipline yourself to the handful of numbers that matter most for the decision at hand and cut the rest, however interesting they seem.
A focused dashboard that shows five things clearly beats a comprehensive one that shows fifty things faintly. Whitespace and hierarchy are features, not wasted opportunities to add another chart.
Make the takeaway obvious at a glance
A viewer should grasp whether things are good or bad within a few seconds, without decoding. Use clear visual signals — direction against target, trend against last period — so the state of the business is legible instantly. Numbers that require interpretation to judge as good or bad slow everyone down.
The best dashboards feel like a car's dashboard: you glance, you understand, you drive on. If yours requires study, redesign it until the story tells itself.