{"id":6418,"date":"2020-03-19T09:25:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T14:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=6418"},"modified":"2020-12-18T22:17:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T03:17:23","slug":"what-are-some-best-practices-in-business-dashboard-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/what-are-some-best-practices-in-business-dashboard-design\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Some Best Practices in Business Dashboard Design?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6419\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/black-car-instrument-panel-3616649-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/black-car-instrument-panel-3616649-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/black-car-instrument-panel-3616649-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/black-car-instrument-panel-3616649-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/black-car-instrument-panel-3616649.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/business-dashboard-design-4107\">Business dashboards<\/a><\/strong> are important tools to measure key performance indicators and data pertaining to an organization or certain procedure. \u00a0Just as a vehicle dashboard is powerful <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/stream\/performance-management\">performance management<\/a> tool in summarizing a performance of a multitude of processes, a business dashboard summarizes the performance or impact of a host of functions, teams, and activities; and assists in <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/strategic-planning\">strategic planning<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/business-toolkit\/decision-making\">decision making<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Business dashboards simplify sharing and analysis of large data, and help users visualize complex performance data in simple yet visually aesthetic manner.\u00a0 Dashboards aid in simplifying complex processes into smaller more manageable information pieces for the organizational leadership to focus on everyday operations.\u00a0 They keep everyone on the same wavelength and prioritize display of facts based on their importance and potential impact.\u00a0 The information on a well-designed dashboard is clear, presentable to enhance meaning, readily accessible, and dynamic.\u00a0 A carefully-planned dashboard allows the leadership to identify and answer business challenges in real-time, develop plan of action based on insights, and inculcate innovation.<\/p>\n<p>Proficient and capable dashboard designers and firms have taken the art of visualization of valuable indicators and insights through dashboards to the next level.\u00a0 They have devised specific guiding principles, dos and don\u2019ts, and time-tested development routines to accomplish this.\u00a0 These guiding principles comprise 10 best practices, which can be segregated into 3 major implementation categories:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>Planning<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Analyze your audience<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Contemplate display options<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Prompt application loading time<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>\n<h2><strong>Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Exploit eye-scanning patterns<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Restrict number of views &amp; colors<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Let viewers filter data<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ensure proper formatting\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>\n<h2><strong>Refinement <\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use Tooltips to reinforce story<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Eliminate redundancy\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Review the dashboard carefully<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/business-dashboard-design-4107\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6516\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Business-Dashboard-Design.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"902\" height=\"677\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Business-Dashboard-Design.png 902w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Business-Dashboard-Design-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Business-Dashboard-Design-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 902px) 100vw, 902px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s discuss the first 5 best practices for now.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Analyze your audience<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A careful analysis and understanding of the business dashboard\u2019s intended audience is the first important principle to consider before commencing the development of such a dashboard.\u00a0 For instance, a busy salesperson in need of quickly going through indicators, whereas senior management needing a deep-down review of quarterly sales results.\u00a0 This gives the developers a thorough idea of what the audience wants from a dashboard, what data they will visualize utilizing this, and let them know the audience\u2019s technical capabilities in terms of data analysis, theme, issue, and business understanding.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Contemplate display options<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The second principle to follow in designing a business dashboard is to research your users\u2019 device and display preferences beforehand.\u00a0 Building a dashboard with desktop display options in mind when your audience prefers to use phones to view it could be a disaster.\u00a0 The designers should set the size of the dashboard properly\u2014allowing the users to view it on a range of devices, by building in automatic sizing option for the dashboard to adopt to the dimensions of the browser window.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Prompt application loading time<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Your audience and viewers are busy people who hate long waits.\u00a0 Therefore a stunningly designed dashboard would not get the right traction if it takes too much time to load. \u00a0The dashboard author should facilitate prompt dashboard loading by deciding which filters to add in the dashboard and which ones to exclude.\u00a0 For instance, although filtering is useful in restricting the amount of data analyzed, it effects query performance. \u00a0Some filters are quite slower than others as they load all of the data for a dimension instead of just what you want to keep. \u00a0Knowing the Order of Operations is also beneficial in reducing the load times.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Exploit eye-scanning patterns<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The dashboard authors should have a deep sense of the main purpose of the dashboard in mind when develop such a tool. \u00a0They need to be aware of individuals\u2019 eye tracking patterns\u2014typically when most people look at a screen or content, they start scanning the upper left hand corner of the screen first by intuition\u2014and make the best use of the screen space to display the most important content at the right place.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Restrict number of views &amp; colors<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The designers often get over enthusiastic during their application designs and try to stuff the dashboard with multiple relevant views.\u00a0 This is detrimental for the bigger picture. \u00a0They must include not more than 2 to 3 views per dashboard and create more dashboards in case the scope creeps beyond the 2-3 views range. \u00a0It is also crucial to ensure the content to be clearly visible to the viewer and to use colors correctly to facilitate analysis instead of cramming too many colors in the visuals, which creates a graphical overload for the viewers, slacken analysis (or may even prevent users to analyze data), and even blur the graphics.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Let viewers filter data<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Allowing users to filter the data is another best practice to keep in mind while designing business dashboards.\u00a0 This added interactivity encourages data assessment and permits the users to have their most important view act as a filter for the other views in the dashboard.\u00a0 This helps in conducting side-by-side analysis, promotes involvement, and retains users\u2019 interest.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in learning more about the other best practices to aid in designing a robust business dashboard and knowing the most common mistakes to avoid in this process?\u00a0 You can download <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/business-dashboard-design-4107\"><u>an editable PowerPoint on <strong>Business Dashboard Design<\/strong> here<\/u><\/a> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\">Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n<p>You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\">FlevyPro Library<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\">FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here&#8217;s what some have to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant&#8217;s toolbox.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it&#8217;s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients&#8217; benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business dashboards are important tools to measure key performance indicators and data pertaining to an organization or certain procedure. \u00a0Just as a vehicle dashboard is powerful performance management tool in summarizing a performance of a multitude of processes, a business dashboard summarizes the performance or impact of a host of functions, teams, and activities; and&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/what-are-some-best-practices-in-business-dashboard-design\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What Are Some Best Practices in Business Dashboard Design?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":6419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,408],"tags":[681,1942,1946,1342,1945,1943,1944],"class_list":["post-6418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information-technology","category-management-leadership","tag-big-data","tag-business-dashboard","tag-dashboard-design","tag-data-analytics","tag-data-analysis","tag-data-visualization","tag-information-management-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6418"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7837,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418\/revisions\/7837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}