Dashboards Suck — How To Make Them Suck Less

This is actual dashboard because you can interact with a true dashboard. All pics by the author.

Dashboards suck, but it’s all we got. So let’s make them suck a little bit less.

What is it? A combination of things — think of your car cockpit — everything you see, that’s a pretty well-designed dashboard! And it serves just ONE purpose, not 10 like others like to suggest. It helps you to drive the car safely from A to B. There’s surprisingly little fluff. Stuff is hidden behind flashing lamps — exactly as it should be.

“Dashboards are useful for monitoring, measuring, and analyzing relevant data in key areas. They take raw data from many sources and clearly present it in a way that’s highly tailored to the viewer’s needs — whether you’re a business leader, line of business analyst, sales representative, marketer, and more.” — Tableau. Sorry, that’s NOT it!

That’s the definition of distraction. Good dashboards are the opposite. But thanks, Tableau, for making the world suck a little bit more. (Though Tableau in itself is a great tool.)

Here’s the thing: Most dashboards suck because we let them. We cave to requests, we avoid hard conversations, and we forget that focus isn’t about adding things — it’s about saying no to almost everything.

Think like a scientist married to an engineer/designer