You've mastered advanced chart selection from our last session. Now let's combine those charts into dashboards that actually drive business decisions.
A great dashboard isn't just multiple charts on one screen - it's a focused story that guides users to specific actions.
Engagement Message
In one sentence, how does displaying data differ from guiding decisions?
The cardinal rule of dashboard design: every dashboard should answer one primary business question. Not five questions, not ten questions - one.
Think "How is our marketing campaign performing?" not "Show me all our data."
This focus principle prevents overwhelming users with information they don't need.
Engagement Message
Can you name one consequence when a dashboard tries to answer too many questions?
Visual hierarchy guides your audience's attention to the most important information first. Your eye should land on the key metric immediately.
Use size, color, and position strategically. The biggest, brightest element in the top-left corner gets attention first.
Engagement Message
Where would you place the most critical business metric on a dashboard?
Here's the hierarchy rule: the most important metric gets the biggest space and boldest treatment. Supporting details get smaller, subtler treatment.
If revenue is your key metric, make it prominent. Product breakdowns can be smaller charts below or to the side.
This creates a clear information flow from critical to contextual.
Engagement Message
What is one way poor hierarchy could confuse dashboard users?
Color serves three purposes in dashboards: showing performance status, grouping related information, and creating visual hierarchy.
Red/yellow/green for performance status. Consistent colors for related categories. Bright colors for important elements, muted colors for context.
