1. Consider your audience
a user shouldn’t need to do some more calculations on his own, to get to the information he was looking for, because everything he needs will be clearly displayed on the charts.
- What data will the user be looking for?
- What information would help users to better understand the current situation?
- For two relative values: add a ratio to show either an evolution or a proportion to make it even clearer?
- add the possibility for the user to compare your number with a previous period. (last year’s sales, last quarter’s retention rate)
- Add an evolution ratio and a trend indicator
2. Don’t try to place all the information on the same page
- never create one-size-fits-all dashboards and cram all the information into the same page.
- Think about your audience as a group of individuals who have different needs.
- one dashboard for 1 job position.
3. Choose relevant KPIs
- Think about your goal and your audience.
The metric is extremely important for retailers to identify when the demand for their products or services are higher and/or lower. That way it is much easier to recognize areas that aren’t performing well and adjust accordingly (create promotions, A/B testing, discounts, etc.).
4. Select the right type of dashboard
- Strategic: A dashboard focused on monitoring long-term company strategies by analyzing and benchmarking a wide range of critical trend-based information.
- Operational: A business intelligence tool that exists to monitor, measure, and manage processes or operations with a shorter or more immediate time scale.
- Analytical: These particular dashboards contain large streams of comprehensive data that allow analysts to drill down and extract insights to help the company to progress at an executive level.
- Tactical: These information-rich dashboards are best suited to mid-management and help in formulating growth strategies based on trends, strengths, and weaknesses across departments, such as in the example below:
Each dashboard should be designed for a particular user group with the specific aim of assisting recipients in the business decision-making process. Information is valuable only when it is directly actionable.
5. Provide context
- For example, a management dashboard design will focus on high-level metrics that are easy to compare and, subsequently, offer a visual story.
- Always try to provide maximum information, even if some of them seem obvious to you, your audience might find them perplexing.
- Name all the axes and add titles to all charts.
- Provide comparison values. (comparison against a set target, against a preceding period or against a projected value)
- Tell your audience whether numbers are good/ bad/typical / unusual by comparison values
- Show your audience whether any action is required.
6. Use the right type of chart
- Line charts : Display patterns of change across a continuum. Easy to analyze at a glance.
- Bar charts: quickly compare items in the same category. Eg: page views by country.
7. Layout
- Key information is displayed first — at the top, upper left-hand corner
- Start with the big picture. The major trend should be visible at a glance. After this, proceed with more detailed charts.
- Group the charts by theme with the comparable metrics placed next to each other.
8. Round your numbers
9. Use interactive elements
