A dashboard that nobody opens is just an expensive picture. The best ones answer a specific question for a specific person.
Start with the decision
Before choosing a chart, ask what decision the viewer needs to make. Show everything. Show what matters.
Design principles
- Fewer, clearer metrics beat a wall of numbers
- Context (targets, trends, comparisons) makes a number meaningful
- Consistency across pages builds trust and speed
Formatting at a glance
Emphasis works best when used sparingly: bold for the key figure, italic for qualifiers, underline for terms to remember, strikethrough for outdated values, and bold italic for a single critical alert. In configuration, a flag like showTrend: true adds the context readers need.
If a user needs training to read your dashboard, the design isn't finished.