Author: Arif Chaudhary
Introduction:
Any data may be represented by a correctly designed dashboard, which can also effectively tell a story and entice users to use it. So pay attention if you're a team leader or a dashboard designer trying to improve dashboard design feedback!
Why is good design important for Tableau Dashboard:
It's crucial because we need analytics to drive business decisions, and poor business decisions may occur if a dashboard is viewed inaccurately. A decent dashboard should:
Effectively convey information in a direct and concise manner.
Gives a clear business context
Encourage users to take action
Promote user interaction
Let's explore some useful tips for Tableau:
1] Decide What Clients Need
The foundation of the entire design should be an understanding of your audience and the analysis that they are trying to perform using our dashboard. Consider emphasizing those with KPIs at the top or side of the screen if they are looking for a sales figure or profit margin, so they are visible and simple to find.
Starting at a high degree of granularity and guiding your clients down as they explore the data is a solid general rule for any data analysis. This may be done in Tableau in a number of ways, including by using hierarchies, parameter actions, or the viz in the tooltip feature. The likelihood that your users will complete their tasks more quickly increases if all the necessary metrics are gathered on a single page, but this shouldn't come at the expense of adequate white space and spacing.
2] The Best Visualization to Use
The analyst or dashboard creator's most crucial step is probably selecting the correct visualization because it will aid in the presentation of the particular sort of data. The selection of chart types is one of the Tableau Dashboard best practices that many data analysts do wrong. It's crucial to choose the appropriate chart types for your views. Making poor business decisions can result from selecting inaccurate data, which can lead to misunderstandings.
As a side note, selecting a horizontal bar graph is effective in many situations, but if you just use them, your dashboard will be visually monotonous. Both are maintaining the reader's interest and making sure they are viewing the proper visual depiction of the material are crucial.
For Example:
3] Simplify the Use of Color
The colour of dashboards is an essential component. Color can be used to assist design aesthetics or to indicate distinctions between measures or dimensions. The usual "good" and "bad" colors are red and green, respectively.
Every colors on your dashboard should be able to be explained, including why it was chosen and what it means to the customer. Remove the colors if you are unable to explain that.
4] Use of Images & Icons
Utilizing icons and visuals in a dashboard can significantly encourage users to use your dashboard. A few tables and graphs may not always be as effective at retaining information as a single visual reference. Use artwork to make a dashboard more familiar and to improve the overall user experience.
5] Make Wireframes or Sketches
Drafting sketches is one of my essential Tableau dashboard best practices. I like to have a general notion of what a dashboard should look like before I start building one. To make things simpler when I start to create, I typically sketch out the design. It also helps to avoid clutter in the dashboard.
6] Divide the Dashboard into Various Sections
One of the most important Tableau Dashboard best practices is dividing dashboards into parts. To make it easier to analyze and comprehend, you must break it up into manageable chunks. But with so much information, you can end up drowning. The secret is to revisit the questions you want to clarify before returning to the design board.
For example, you can divide the sections like the KPI section, the bar charts to evaluate category data, the line charts to display the various trends, and the gauge charts to compare performance in the various areas.
7] Do Some Formatting on the Dashboard
One of the most crucial Tableau best practices is formatting your dashboard, which you are not doing. I prefer to remove all grid lines from the charts after creating views to give them a clean appearance. Occasionally, I just leave the borders around the chart alone without using a border around the container and instead remove the borders from each chart and utilize the layout containers in their place.
The key insight is frequently right there in the descriptive titles of a decent Tableau dashboard format.
Subtitles are frequently used to clarify or provide additional information or to draw attention to a second key insight in a fantastic Tableau dashboard formatting design.
The finest Tableau dashboard formatters use callouts or tooltips to draw attention to important information in the current view.
They offer guidance on how to utilize the chart as well as how to understand it.
They include axes that are descriptive on the charts and legends.
They set up the entire perspective to be easily readable.
Conclusion:
Data analysis is all about presenting a story rather than just supplying the punchline, just like any good joke. There are a few best practices that should be followed in order to accomplish this efficiently. Always put maintaining the persona of your users and the analysis they are attempting before our other design-centric ideas. With each tip, your story should become more compelling.