Designing Dashboards for Usability

A few important aspects of dashboard's visual design remain to be considered. One of the most challenging is the need to arrange many items of informationoften related solely by the viewer's need to monitor them allin a manner that doesn't result in a cluttered mess. This arrangement must support the intrinsic relationships between the various items and the manner in which they must be navigated and used to support the task at hand. A dashboard's design must optimally and transparently support its use. The whole also must be pleasing to look upon, or it will be ignored.

Organize the information to support its meaning and use

Maintain consistency for quick and accurate interpretation

Make the viewing experience aesthetically pleasing

Design for use as a launch pad

Test your design for usability

Beyond selecting appropriate display media and reducing the non-data pixels to a minimum, attention also must be given to several other aspects of design to guarantee that your dashboards are easy to use and do everything they can to support the viewer's need to respond to the information. Having knowledge of a few more design strategies under your belt will help you blend all the visual aspects of your dashboard into a pleasing and functional display.