Dashboard
Process
Dashboard Design
About designing for real user value, and where I've done so
2017 - present
Information Designer & Front-end Developer
Applying design thinking to data visualization in dashboards and reports is an often overlooked, but very valuable genre of information design. Over the years I've built dashboards for a plethora of boards, operational teams, and everything in between and landed on a process that consistently gets people to trust and adopt what I hand them. Below, I summarize a repeatable process, a clear set of rules, and a simple test of quality: will they who need it, actually use it?
Disclaimer: For confidentiality/NDA purposes, no explicit or visual case information is shared.
but first
Dashboards and data design pieces are not the same discipline, even though both visualize data to allow a reader to understand and learn something.
A dashboard needs to land in seconds. The goal is instant, repeatable clarity for someone who'll return to it every day or week. They should communicate a message in an intuitive, effective and efficient way.
A data design piece is, in a way, the opposite: they want the reader to slow down, to sit with it, and to let the message (and sometimes the emotion) land over time.
Different product, different goal, different rules. I enjoy creating both, but what follows below is specifically about dashboards.
process
How I approach a dashboard.
01
Understand the audience & their goal
Before anything else: who is this for, and what are they trying to achieve? I need to be able to design and convey a message that is intuitive to someone else, not to myself.
02
Define the information need
Translate that goal into exactly what they need to know to get there.
03
KPIs, data elements & granularity
Turn the information need into concrete, measurable metrics, at the right level of detail.
04
Design for intuitive visualization
Match every metric to the chart type that tells its story most clearly, using visualization best practices to convey the message in an effective and efficient way. I'll highlight a few golden rules below.
05
Sketch & wireframe
Fast, rough layout ideas first, then a structured, testable layout without visual polish.
06
Prototype, test & iterate
A clickable mockup, tested with real users before a single pixel gets built.
07
Deliver
Only now does the dashboard get built in the actual tool, when everything has been validated. At this point, clients already know and trust the end product, developers have the clarity they need, and there is certainty that the dashboard will be used, therefore will actually be valuable.
08
Implement & aftercare
Provide guidance during the first period of use and collect any potential new insights for future improvement.
insight
Why this process?
A dashboard is only valuable if it's actually being used. That takes trust, and trust is built by involving people early, not by handing them something finished.
Understand and match the user's information need
Early involvement builds ownership and trust
A thorough design prevents expensive and time-consuming rework
golden rules
The working principles I build by.
A few things I've learned along the way, from years of building dashboards that people actually use. In a world where anyone can now build anything, it takes knowledge and skill to build the right thing and to build things right.
cases
Where I've applied this. (amongst others)
Belastingdienst
Uitvoeringsorganisatie Herstel Toeslagenaffaire
2023 - 2024
UX & UI Lead
Designed and developed operational and strategic insights products for the board and 12 operational teams, along with a full data vis design system and a new design-thinking inspired way of working.
See detailed case description
IKEA
2022 - 2023
Designer & Developer
Built a Power BI tool for analyzing potential and existing sales markets across dozens of demographic and behavioural variables, at national, regional, and local level.
KLM
2024 - 2025
Designer & Developer
Led a design sprint to create a shared understanding of what the client was optimizing for, then unified Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Google Analytics data into a single Power BI dashboard revealing which campaigns drove conversion.
UWV
2024 - 2025
UX & UI Lead