What goes at the top of a dashboard? Lay it out in reading order
Arrange the dashboard so it reads in the order the decision gets made: the answer first, then where, then since when.
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You have all the pieces of Lucía's dashboard: the week's numbers, no-shows by site, occupancy and the thirteen-week trend. What's left is deciding where each one goes. Before you read on, pick:
Check yourself: What goes in the top left corner of Lucía's dashboard?
A screen reads like a page
If you read English, you start at the top left, move right and work your way down. A dashboard makes use of that habit when it puts the answer there, and wastes it when it puts a logo or three filter menus there. The layout that works follows the decision, in the same order Lucía asks herself the questions on Monday:
Top: are we on track?
the week's numbers with their comparisons
Middle: where?
no-shows and occupancy by site
Bottom: since when?
the weekly trend
Last: the detail
the appointment list, on another tab
With the data for the week of September 21, the top row of Lucía's dashboard would read something like this:
| No-show rate | Occupancy | Completed | Average wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.5% | 87.0% | 331 | 19.7 min |
| target 10% · last week 11.2% | last week 89.4% | last week 342 | last week 18.8 min |
From that row alone, Lucía knows the no-show rate is over the target and that the schedules have room. The middle row tells her where (Cholula), and the trend at the bottom tells her it isn't one bad week but something that has been building since August. She opens the appointment list, with names, afterward, and only for the site she picked.
If your dashboard has to serve two people with different questions, talk with your Maestro about how to lay it out.
Five details that make it read itself
The period, front and center
At the top, in words: "Week of September 21 to 27," plus when it was last updated. A number without a date reads as if it were from today.
Titles that say something
Title each chart with its question or its answer: "Which site has the problem?" or "Cholula, over target for the fifth week in a row." "No-shows" doesn't tell anyone what to look for.
Same site, same color
If Cholula is one color on one chart, it's that color on all of them, and the sites always appear in the same order. That way nobody has to relearn the legend on every chart.
Same measure, same scale
Two no-show charts side by side share the same axis, or a 10% bar on one can look just like a 17% bar on the other.
The detail, one click away
The table with every appointment goes on another tab or behind a link. The first screen holds only what helps make the decision.
And on a phone
A lot of Mondays, Lucía opens the dashboard on her phone on the way to the clinic. On a narrow screen, whatever sat side by side gets stacked. That makes the order matter even more: if the answer is at the top, she sees it without scrolling; if it's below the trend, she may never get to it. When you design, check how the dashboard looks as a single column.
Try it
On a piece of paper, sketch your dashboard as four boxes, top to bottom: the answer, the where, the since when, and the detail. Inside each box, write which numbers or charts go there. Then describe it here, and your Maestro will tell you whether the order follows the decision. If a piece doesn't fit in any box, ask your Maestro whether it belongs on the dashboard.
Describe your dashboard from top to bottom: what goes in the answer, the where, the since when and the detail.