Dashboard Best Practices

BARC The BI Survey

Why Dashboards?

2 types of BI users

What do business-users want?

Dashboards for the BI Consumer

Dashboards are not an analyst toolFocus on what business users want and need

Challenge is understanding how data actually gets used in organization

Today's Session

1 - Purpose

Who is the dashboard for?

Focus on a single subject area per tab

How will the dashboard be used?

Planning your dashboard

What data do you need?

2 - Summarize

Do not overwhelm

Summary to Detail

Display important metrics with KPIs

3 - Layout

Allocate layout by importance - Before

Reports in the wrong order

Athlete Regional Metrics - wrong shape

Bubble - not wide enough to be clear

Campaign effectiveness - clear

Agency Sales over Time - too small

Heat Grid - clear

Allocate layout by importance - After

Athlete Regional Metrics - correct shape & size

Bubble - double width now, easier to read

Campaign Effectiveness - slightly more space

Agency Sales over Time - double width, easier to read

Heat Grid - clear

4 - Clarity

Titles

What does this chart represent?

Descriptions

Consistency

5 - Attention

Conditional Formatting

Rank Flag Camp Country Invoiced Profit Cost Rating % of Max

1 Italy $8,882,013.53

2 Austria $7,447,954.66

3 USA $5,642,422.04

4 Australia $4,490,174.68

5 New Zealand $3,637,444.43

6 Japan $2,185,357.28

7 Germany $1,681,510.02

8 Canada $1,458,473.15

9 Armenia $1,296,521.07

10 Finland $1,145,911.31

Colours to highlight extremesIcon alerts

Flags

Annotations and Reference Lines

Use annotation sparinglyAnnotations get more attention

Higher dwell time

6 - Interaction

Make dashboards an engaging experience

Examine data further with

TooltipsDrill Down & Drill AnywhereDrill ThroughBrushingFiltersDate SliderSeries SelectionMap Zoom & Layers

7 - Share and Collaborate

Any Platform, Any Device

Data-Driven Decisions

summary