Information visualisation: getting dashboards right

What you’ll learn

• An introduction to dashboard design
• Key considerations when you design for dashboards, such as using the pre-attentive attributes of color, form, orientation, and spatial location
• How principles of visual perception—encompassing how, what, and why we see what we do—can be applied to your dashboard designs
• Key concepts related to dashboard design, such as the “data-ink ratio,” summaries and exceptions, the benefits of customization, and how to promote insight
• Some of the psychological aspects of dashboard use, including attention, short-term memory, and problem solving
• Examples of good and bad design to help you avoid common mistakes
• The importance of viewing experience over aesthetics.

“Information Visualization: Getting Dashboards Right” will lead you through some of the key considerations when designing dashboard displays. Some design choices may seem arbitrary, such as the color of the background display or the size of the company logo, but almost every decision can potentially make, or ruin, the viewing experience. Through this course, we help you identify many of the design pitfalls your competitors have already fallen into. We will equip you with a deeper understanding of your users, so you know how to reduce their burden of responsibility as well as promote insight—the main reason for using dashboards as the chosen display method.

By the end of the course, you will have a clear understanding of how to design the right dashboards for your intended users, saving yourself the effort of endless edits. You will also be able to avoid the common faults blighting your competitors’ designs by being equipped with the necessary information to design products that provide your users with the best possible viewing experience and, in turn, generate an increase in sales.