Human problem
The executives buying and using our dashboards would be more excited about them if they were visually engaging.
Business problem
Product managers wondered if our existing dashboards were too dull in appearance. The engineers were recreating the dashboards in a new Business Intelligence (BI) tool. Our project team collaboratively agreed to use the BI tool's default settings, to start. We wanted a baseline view of how much "wow" and brand adherence the dashboards would have "out of box" with minimal effort by the engineers to change the styling. The approach also was faster, which was a business imperative at the time.
Also, as beautiful as a carefully customized set of dashboard designs might be, we needed to be careful about introducing styling updates that could make our dashboards more difficult or impossible for our Business Analyst persona to use as templates. When they copied and modified our shipped dashboards, we wanted their dashboards (by default) to match our dashboards, as they'd all be residing together. We couldn't burden Business Analysts with a lot of styling in order to blend our dashboards and theirs in storytelling.
Now that we had the baseline, product managers wanted to know how much more visually compelling they could be, if we invested in styling. I've omitted an image of the baseline dashboard because it contained realistic analytic insights, whereas my mockups below use placeholder content.
Design approach
I started by looking for "the state of the art" online - dashboards cited as among the best of 2021, or representative of trends in dashboard design. I gathered these as backup material for the presentation deck I was assembling for the executive requesting this design exercise.
I also gathered and quickly assessed the "wow" factor of: our existing dashboards before migration to the new BI tool; the best examples of dashboards actually implemented in the new BI tool by styling experts in that BI tool; competitors' dashboards; sample data visualizations; and other visual reference points from our company brand guidelines.
From reviewing these materials, I wrote down what I liked best or least about each dashboard. Next, I started shaping a few visions that included those characteristics. Writing by hand helped to stimulate my creativity, to remind me this was a quick-and-dirty exercise, and to give me a break from my computer screen. (Notes intentionally too small to read).
Challenges
A blank page. For this exercise, I put no constraints on the design - it didn't matter for now whether the BI tool could produce what I designed, whether our engineers had a sufficient skill level, or how long it would take to implement.
Little time. Although I had the luxury of starting from a blank page to reimagine how our dashboards could look, I had little time. Originally, I was allotted a couple of days by our Product Management executive, but was able to negotiate a week, plugging away between meetings and over a weekend.
Working alone. In a past project, I'd asked each of us in a squad of designers to come up with a visionary concept for a dashboard, so we had more divergent thought built into the exercise. To expand my thinking for this "dashboard wow" project, I relied on browsing many designs online, including what are considered the most engaging designs actually implemented in the specific BI tool.
Pressure to prove myself. An executive had a misconception that the dull baseline design (the BI tool default) was my best design work. My day-to-day team of product management and engineering stakeholders understood and had agreed on our plan, but I'd failed to keep this executive in the loop. In addition to striving for excellence in my visual concepts, I used the backup section of my presentation deck to showcase my professional expertise by including pro-and-con critiques of various dashboards I'd gathered for inspiration and comparison.
Human outcome
Ultimately, we sought to deliver a more visually delightful and compelling dashboard for the executives using it. I drafted three visual design concepts to generate discussion. Due to time constraints, and to emphasize this is a first draft, I started with medium fidelity, as shown. I asked product managers what they liked and disliked about each design. We had a productive discussion.
Business outcome
The team was able to assess whether to invest more in the dashboard's visual design, which could drive subscriptions to our analytic software in the cloud.
The next step would be to draft one updated design as a result of the discussion and hold another playback for product managers and engineers. Then, engineers would be able to size the implementation effort.
Happily, I also reused elements of the "Wow" dashboards to accelerate two Health Equity dashboard explorations where each needed an exciting vision (in substance and style) to seal support from stakeholders .