Creating dashboards isn’t just about visualizing data. It’s about guiding users efficiently to the insights they need, while balancing organizational priorities and stakeholder expectations. As dashboard creators, understanding the full user journey—how dashboards are found, used, questioned, and relied upon—is just as important as the data itself.
This article brings together research-backed dashboard design principles with real-world experience of stakeholder management, usability trade-offs, and change management.
How Users Interact with Dashboards: What the Research Tells Us
Research into dashboard usability consistently shows that users do not scan dashboards randomly. A few common patterns appear again and again:
Top-left priority: Users tend to focus on the top-left area first. This is where key KPIs or headline metrics should live.
- Z-pattern scanning: Users often scan left to right across the top, then diagonally down, then across again. Layout should support this natural flow.
- Gestalt principles: Charts that are visually grouped through proximity, colour, or layout are easier to interpret as related information.
- Cognitive load: Overcrowded dashboards slow users down and increase the risk of misunderstanding.
These principles should directly influence how dashboards are designed: prioritising key information, creating clear visual hierarchy, and resisting the urge to include “everything just in case”.
Understanding What Stakeholders Actually Use Dashboards For
Before refining layout or adding features, it’s worth asking a simple question: what do stakeholders actually use this dashboard for?
- Are they copying and pasting a handful of metrics into slides or reports?
- Are they monitoring trends over time?
- Are they exploring scenarios or just checking a number and moving on?
A dashboard might look impressive, but if stakeholders are only using two numbers from it every week, the design should reflect that reality. In some cases, this may mean:
- Providing downloadable tables or CSV exports
- Creating a summary page with the most-used metrics
- Automating outputs through scheduled reporting or alerts
The goal is not to impress visually, but to make stakeholders’ lives easier.
Tailoring Dashboards to Real Stakeholder Use Cases
One of the most effective ways to improve dashboards is to observe how stakeholders actually use them.
Ask them to open the dashboard and talk through what they normally do:
- Where do they go first?
- What do they look for?
- What do they ignore?
- What do they copy out or screenshot?
This often reveals small but impactful improvements—simpler layouts, clearer labels, or pre-filtered views. In smaller organisations this is easier to do regularly, but even in larger companies, sampling a few key users can provide valuable insight.
This approach also strengthens stakeholder relationships. It shows that usability is being taken seriously, not just data delivery.
Onboarding, Tooltips, and Reducing Confusion
Dashboards are rarely used only by their original audience. New users will eventually find them—and without context, even well-built dashboards can be confusing.
Simple onboarding helps:
- A short “Getting Started” section
- A brief explanation of key metrics and filters
- Notes on how the dashboard is *intended to be used * Tooltips are another low-effort, high-impact solution. In my own interactive COVID-19 dashboard, I used tooltips to explain key calculated fields such as month-on-month change. This bridges the gap between technical logic and practical understanding for non-technical users.
Interactivity, What-If Analysis, and Exploration
Interactive dashboards allow users to explore scenarios rather than consume static outputs.
For example:
- Toggling comparison lines on and off
- Highlighting or removing bars to focus on specific trends
- Allowing users to explore “what if” scenarios without exporting data
These features add real value—but should be used deliberately. Interactivity should support decision-making, not distract from it.
Accessibility and Simplicity
Accessibility is often overlooked but critically important. Clear layouts, readable fonts, and sensible colour choices make dashboards easier for everyone to use.
In my COVID-19 dashboard, I prioritised clarity and simplicity using blue, orange, red, and green to distinguish key elements. While this could be further optimised for colourblind accessibility, the guiding principle was keeping the dashboard easy to interpret at a glance.
Simple, clear dashboards often outperform complex ones—especially for business users under time pressure.
Managing Stakeholder Requests Without Breaking the Dashboard
Stakeholders will inevitably request changes. When this happens, a few questions are worth asking:
- Are they the only user of this dashboard?
- Why do they want this change?
- Is there another way to meet their requirement without impacting others?
If a change is made for one user, it’s important to:
- Document what changed and why
- Communicate appropriately with other stakeholders
- Monitor whether usability improves or declines
This prevents dashboards slowly degrading into collections of compromises.
Updating Existing Dashboards Safely
Applying best practices to dashboards already in use can be challenging. Users become familiar with layouts, and sudden changes can frustrate them.
A safer approach includes:
- Assessing which dashboards are business-critical
- Piloting improvements with a small group
- Clearly communicating why changes are being made
- Phasing updates rather than replacing everything at once
The aim is improvement without disruption.
Tracking Usage and Managing Change
Usage metrics can help identify which dashboards and charts are actually used—but only if interpreted carefully.
Change logs are also valuable for transparency, although in reality they can be difficult to maintain during busy periods or team changes. Even a lightweight record of key changes is better than nothing and helps maintain trust.
The Bottom Line
Dashboards succeed or fail based on how well they fit into users’ workflows. By understanding how users discover dashboards, how they scan and interpret information, and how stakeholders actually use the data, dashboard creators can build tools that are trusted, adopted, and genuinely useful.
A dashboard that looks good is one thing. A dashboard that makes decisions easier is the one that truly delivers value.
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