How to Build a Beautiful Dashboard

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The first step to building a great dashboard: start with the end result that’s important to the dashboard consumer We previously established a bit of what goes into a solid dashboard. Now we'll talk about how to get there. First, we start with discovery. Start with the end result that’s important to the consumer(s).

Align on the Source Data of Your Dashboard

Once you know what should be on the dashboard, now you need to understand content details. Sometimes this is an API, or a database or flat file. Sometimes predefined elements live in the dashboard. Such as goal values for example. Understanding the source data and getting everyone in agreement is important. If you have different teams pulling the same "KPI" from different data sources, you have a problem. Once you have the data requirements and data sources, confirm with all involved any calculations that are performed. While there are "standards" for most KPIs, it’s not uncommon for a team to use a non standard definition. If it isn’t confirmed early, you can end up in a mess if a formula is assumed and data is presented that doesn’t match what it should.

Ensure Data on Your Dashboard Can Be Refreshed and Automated

Its one thing to "sketch" what you want it to look like, and to know what you want in the dashboard. Its a whole other thing to get the data connected, get the formulas working and the visuals par baked. For some consumers, this is a good time to get buy-in and confirmation of all the data in the dash. For others, it can cause more harm than good to show anything but a final product. Try and learn your audience during the discovery phase. Once you get a go-ahead on your draft, now its time to get everything cleaned up. Clean up the presentation. Get colors in check. Ensure visual priority is still working as expected, and follow brand guidelines as needed. Once you have everything looking good, the data is in place, make sure to ensure that data can be refreshed and automated. If you were working on a local dataset for the building process, now it's time to hook up to the real data (already agreed upon source). Next, get feedback, but get it from the end consumer. Often, middleman feedback may not be relevant to the end user.

Revise and Send Your Dashboard in Confidence

If you followed these steps in building your dashboard, you’ve kept defined needs in mind. You made it look beautiful (see definition of beauty above), and you iterated based on feedback. For now you’re done. Stand confident in your delivery, you provided what you needed to. Set that refresh interval based on the ability for the consumer to react. Now, sit back and relax. When you've executed a dashboard well, your relaxation period will be short. You’ll be rinsing and repeating soon as you’ll be making another dashboard for another consumer. Ah, the marvel that is your data visual work of art is gets shared and demand is increasing!