3 Keys to Effective Dashboard Design

Table of Contents

What To Keep In Mind When Designing an Executive Dashboard

 

Keys to Improving Dashboard Usability

 

There are really 3 basic design issues to decide when designing an executive dashboard using xcelsius or SAP BI4. When it comes to executive dashboard design, SAP dashboard design is as much art as it is science.

 

Designing a Dashboard

 

  • Data Selection

    What do you want to see.

 

  • Navigation: 

    How to navigate around the dashboard, for example, how to get from one chart to another chart.

 

  • Presentation:

    How do you want to see the data, chart, graph, gauge dial etc

 

If you break the dashboard down to those 3 components, then the development process falls into place.

 

How Do You Achieve Effective Dashboard Design?

 

 

  • Second, don’t let each Business Unit try to redefine the dashboard.  The Business Unit has to worry about what to display in the gauge or chart.

 

If 1 Business Unit gets a gauge, they all get the same gauge because they are all getting the same template.

 

Then life is easier for a lot of different people, including the developer.

 

  • Third.  In order to define a company dashboard design standard, a common approach might require everyone to get into 1 room together to come up with a common design.

 

The alternative to getting everyone in the room and hashing out agreement will result  in you  spending 6 months gathering requirements and going back and forth until the  final dashboard design is saved till last. If you cannot arrive at a common design standard or gain agreement on effective dashboard design outcomes, you will have to design specific dashboards for each Business Unit.  This will result in higher development cost.  

 

Best Practices in Dashboard Design

 

We can help you both design effective dashboards and implement them using proven Best Practices.

 

xCelsius Dashboard Best Practices

 

We would love to hear some of your dashboard design Best Practices.

 

Please feel free to comment or link to us.

 

More reading:

Take a Deeper Dive into Aircraft Cockpits Vs Dashboards

 

 

Download SAP BW Mindmap

Learn what SAP Business Warehouse is and what it does in under five minutes

Get this Mindmap

Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
Balanced Scorecard Consultant

He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

View All Articles by Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

The SAP Blog

Subscribe to our blog and receive SAP BW Updates, demand generation, inbound marketing, sales enablement, technology and revenue generation insights and ideas delivered right to your email.