12 Questions for Dashboard Design (and 5 Mistakes to Avoid)

Last week we explored 6 dashboard design tips to improve the aesthetics of existing dashboards.  In this post, we share design tips from our analysts about dashboard and OLAP cube requirements gathering as well as costly mistakes to avoid.

12 Tips to Remember

Tailor your dashboard to the audience AND the process they're trying to optimize.

• How important is this measure to a user compared to other measures?
• What other measures would provide comparative context?
• Is there a sequence of measures a user would follow to drill into a question?
• How might the answer to the previous questions differ by users at different levels of the organizational hierarchy?

Express the data in a way relevant to the audience.

• What's the scope of your dashboard? (Company, department, individuals, a supplier)
• What level of summarization or detail is appropriate?
• What unit of measure is approrpiate for each measure?
• What complementary information should I include?
• Again, how might the answers differ as scope or user changes?

Match the tool to the user. 

• Managers and executives may prefer a dashboard that provides a non-interactive executive or strategic summary, while business or data analysts may prefer to construct their own analyses against raw data straight from the data warehouse, while mid-level managers may require a live operational report.
• Did you choose the right chart?
• Should this be a PowerBI dashboard, a SQL query, an SSRS report, a Jet Professional Report, an Excel PivotTable?
• How often does the data need to be refreshed?  Do operational decisions depend on activity or status changes in the last 15 minutes?  Last 3 hours?  Last 24 hours?

5 Tips to Avoid

Kicking off a project with an overly complex problem quickly  leads to project stall or paralysis.

• Complexity can arise when a variety of inputs are required to calculate a measure (eg. 'true profitability or cost allocation). A bottom-up approach of first identifying simple measures which aggregate into increasingly complex summarizations can encourage quick wins and maintain momentum.
• If your team insists on a top-down approach, divide and conquer. Decompose complex strategic objectives goals, or measures into composite pieces.

  In your data warehouse, cubes and dashboards, avoid using metrics or abbreviations who's meanings are not immediately obvious.

• The use of generic names like "Global Dimension 2", abbreviations or entity codes may affect adoption rates and user acceptance because they only resonate with a handful of seasoned analysts and fall flat with a broader audience.
• In your visualizaitons, stave-off confusion or frustration by opting for verbose titles, captions, and axis labels while avoiding legends.

KISS (Keep it simple).  Avoid clutter, non-succinct graphics, or unintelligible widgets. 

• 3D effects, sparklines, temperature gauge charts, mapping charts, and pie charts are common visualization elements that add spice and sizzle to a dashboard; however, when poorly executed, these elements take up significant space without communicating a lot of information.
• Ask yourself if you could express the same information with less ink, color or space.

Avoid failing to match metrics with goals.

• "How does this dashboard aid a business process?" It's not enough to showcase the activities of a department.  Keep strategic goals or operational activities in mind. Does the dashboard provide enough context for viewers to reach an actionable conclusion?

Don't wait to get started.

• Many are tempted to wait until development has finished before they begin laying out their dashboards, when in truth, report requirements should drive or at least inform development efforts.

Go Forth and do Great Things

Still looking for inspiration?

• Here are some of my favorite Jet Reports from the Report Player
• Can't create the chart you want with a PivotTable?  Use Excel's Cube Functions 
• Need dimensions or measures added to your cubes?  Our services team has domain expertise on data warehouse and OLAP cube design for Dynamics NAV and GP.
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