The Ten Commandments of Designing an Information Dashboard

So your CEO read about data-driven decisions as the in-thing and realized that the information dashboard is the Holy Grail he was looking for to improve the engagement quotient of his product. You have been given the mandate to create that masterpiece. But hey, wait! before you set on your expedition, here are our ten commandments of designing an information dashboard that will help you sail through:

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before thy user. Respect and understand his needs.
2. Thou shalt not make any complicated image. Thou design should be simple, clear and precise.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the dashboard in vain. Never forget that thy dashboard has a purpose to fulfill.
4. Remember the Deadline day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour thy data. Thou shalt always provide accurate data and specify the units of measurement, chart captions and data labels.
6. Thou shalt not murder your design with overuse of colors. Thou shalt use and choose colors wisely.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt know the difference between the column, the line and the pie chart.
8. Thou shalt not steal or abet in stealing. Thou shalt have provisions to alert thy user well in time.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy data. Thou shalt provide thy user the right context to his data and options to drill-down , if he so desires.
10. Thou shalt not covet to transgress the limitations of thy user’s short term memory. Thou shalt place all related metrics close to one another for easy analysis.

Have your own commandments of designing an information dashboard? Share them in the comment section below.

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