How to create a great user experience with your dashboards

user centered design user experience

While good dashboards require attention to detail and precision, it's crucial not to lose sight of the overall big picture. Therefore, I recommend stepping back when designing dashboards.

Spreadsheet : The user experience killer.

It's well known that spreadsheets can kill the user experience and make it chaotic due to their complexity and raw data presentation.

What about dashboards?

Dashboard : The versatile

With dashboards, creating a user experience is simpler. There are charts to be read in a certain order, and whether the dashboard is exploratory or decision-oriented, it's fundamentally easier (when perfectly executed). All it takes is adjusting the spacing, titles and borders to guide the user.

Dataviz Product : A user-centered design approach

A dashboard can be seen as a data visualization product. Although this is often overlooked, adopting a product approach can make the final deliverable more professional. By incorporating Product Design principles, a dashboard does more than just "export data" or "offer an Excel extract."

The vertical eco-system

Dashboards are often organized according to business functions. This approach inhibits cross-domain user journeys. It's important to consider a vertical experience, but also a horizontal one: between projects and domains.

Eco-system refocused on user experience

In this setup, links can be made between projects, domains and business activities, without being restricted to the current data visualization products silos.

Dashboard level vs Product level

Key benefits :

Avoid duplicates content
Avoid duplicates queries
Ensure efficient use of the data
Adopt new skills and design methods for devs
Create a horizontal user experience for businesses
Help to think about documentation, FAQ, onboarding, training, release note ...

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Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1 - Unlock The Dashboard Assessment training course and template to help you develop great dashboards that users love

2 - Get your lifetime access to my gallery and learn The Fundamentals of Data Visualization in 50+ minimalist visuals.

3 - The Dashboard Interview Guide will help you ask better questions before diving into your dashboard development.