Excel dashboards are some form of visual reporting mechanism. Excel dashboards are completely different from your default spreadsheet report that is usually created in excel.
Dashboard reporting based on the key principles should bridge that gap between systems and the information needs of management. More importantly, good dashboard design and data modelling should help information workers and analysts to spend less time with manual excel tasks and more time analysing information.
One page display
If your dashboard contains too much information it will fail to convey the data effectively. Also, the data might end up on more than one page. Remember, our aim is to communicate a message about the data, don’t include every bit of data in a dashboard. The information displayed should be the most relevant and within the left and upper part of the screen. This will depend on the purpose of the dashboard. The other point here is that if something is off-page, then it can’t be viewed quickly. It might not be seen at all. The other reason for this is when you print your dashboard, it should also fit to a single page.
Simple to understand
An excel dashboard should help to visually identify trends and patterns quickly without confusion. This means that there should not be any visual competition or chart junk present. Fancy formatting distracts users from the key messages. This includes fancy 3D charts, logos, pictures and gauges, which don’t communicate key messages well and take up too much space. Visual reports should help managers decide if any further action or drilling down is required. The use of visual attributes should be used to aid visual perception.
Priority of dashboard components
Adding extra interactivity to your dashboard, such as being able to select a certain region or being able to drill down can make a huge difference in the perceived usability.
Find out about the latest guide and examples about developing your own excel dashboard. Learn more about creating an executive dashboard.