Anatomy of an analytics dashboard
A real sales dashboard taken apart one section at a time, with why each section exists, the design rules behind it and the data it reads.
Sample article: the structure is final, the copy and figures are a first draft to replace with yours.
A good dashboard reads top to bottom like a short argument: what this is, whether we are on track, whether it is a trend, where it is happening, who needs attention, and why the numbers can be trusted. Step through the sales dashboard below one section at a time. Each step explains why the section exists, the design rules that make it work and the tables it queries. Switch the screen ratio to see how the same sections rearrange for laptops, ultrawides, phones and print.
Laptops, desktop monitors, meeting-room TVs
1920 × 1080, 2560 × 1440
- The default for desktop dashboards: it matches the screens most people open them on
- The dashboard will be presented on a projector or TV
Vertical space runs out fast. Keep the headline numbers above the fold.
Header: what this is, and how fresh
Before any number means anything, a reader needs to know what they are looking at, whose it is, and whether it is current.
A name that describes the decision, the scope, the owner and the time of the last refresh, readable in a second.
- Name the question, not the source: “Sales performance”, not “CRM extract v3”
- Show the refresh time where the eye lands first
- Name an owner, so questions have somewhere to go
Where this dashboard sits
Among the dashboard patterns, this one is tactical in purpose (it helps managers act within weeks), laid out as an inverted pyramid (summary first, detail last), and aims to stay a sanity dashboard: every number has a comparison, an owner and a definition.
The trend, up close
The trend section is a line chart. Here it is on its own, pinned to its annotated mode:
Marks the events that explain the turns in the line, so shape is tied to cause.