Our fourth tip is about keeping things simple. Make sure you read the three previous tips in our series:

1. Know What You Want To Say

2. Set Clear Goals

3. Tell a Clear Visual Story

4. Keep It Simple!

As touched upon earlier, a simple, direct message has the biggest impact on potential viewers. By definition, it’s easy to understand and not prone to varying interpretations. Yet more often than not, a dashboard is the fruit of countless hours of complex analysis, on many different levels. Thus the story that needs to be told is complicated and multi-faceted. How, then, is it possible to keep things simple?

Let’s have a look and see what we can learn from this classic example. The National Debt Clock’s message is staggeringly simple:

However, this simple dashboard could have looked very differently. If the author didn’t identify what the really key metrics are, we would be looking at something like this:

It’s not that the intricacies don’t matter, and don’t have a place, but they should be treated as their own story, where the findings can be consumed in digestible chunks.

Let’s look at the following example:

This dashboard was built to present an analysis of a company’s current sales pipeline. The goal is to report on past performance, and draw insight for improving future results. You’ll notice that this dashboard contains only four reports, all relating to “Sales History,” as seen by the highlighted tab.

By breaking the story up into several tabs (or chapters), the author was able to present a clear flow of ideas in understandable chunks. Dashboard viewers can jump from tab to tab and learn the story bit by bit.

Tips for keeping it simple:

• Break your complex thesis into bite-sized chunks.
• Provide summaries, and move the details to their own section.
• Don’t overwhelm users with too much information at once; but allow them to dig at their own pace.
• Put yourself in your users’ shoes, and ask yourself if your presentation is understandable and on target.