4 Features Your Dashboard Needs to Have

No matter the industry, company or department you’re working in, an Excel dashboard is a tremendously useful tool.

Through the use of dashboards, you can do quickly and conveniently assess visualized data. This saves time & energy, and keeps you from having to go through page after page of reports.

Tracking KPIs and metrics with dashboards equips you with the knowledge you need to take the right decisions for your business.

However, not all dashboards are created equal. For a functional yet visually engaging Excel dashboard, the following features are a must:

1.   Simplicity

You’re allowed to be creative when designing a dashboard. It’s your own data you’re working with, after all. But it’s also important to keep that creativity in check.

A simple design will always be more effective and easier to understand than a dashboard crammed with all kinds of graphics and effects.

Your primary goal should be to maximize readability for the intended users of the dashboard.

2.   Variety

This is the other side of our first point.

Simplicity is essential, but if you use the same shapes, layouts and charts over and over again, you run the risk of creating a monotonous dashboard that won’t capture attention.

If the data is hard to distinguish and understand because all of it is presented in the same way, then the purpose of creating a dashboard is lost.

Ensure just enough variety to create and maintain visual interest in your data.

3.   A Lack of Clutter

Stuffing too much information into a dashboard will render it useless.

In the early stages of creating a dashboard, as you brainstorm ideas about design and which metrics & KPIs to include, focus on the most relevant ones.

Start by determining the purpose of your dashboard, understand who it will be used by, and what information will be the most helpful to them.

Then use all this information to make sure that all the data that ultimately goes on the dashboard serves the purpose of its creation.

4.   Careful Use of Colour

The colour schemes in your dashboard should be chosen carefully.

Using a lot of bright colours will distract the viewer and divert their attention from what they need to know.

Choose muted colours to present most of the information, and sparingly use bolder colours to highlight any important figures, or data that requires urgent attention.

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