Dashboard

Dashboard Skill

How this skill behaves (read first)

This is a generative skill, and dashboards have a signature over-design trap: cramming every available metric onto one screen. As the lessons put it — "when everything is important, nothing is." The default instinct is to show all the data; a good dashboard shows the few things that answer the user's question. So this skill gates:

1. Establish who's looking and what decision they're making — that determines what belongs on the screen.
2. Apply the always-true core — organization, hierarchy, and chart-fit principles that hold for any dashboard.
3. Decide density, detail, and chart types deliberately — surface the context-dependent choices instead of defaulting to "show it all."

Then hand off to the audits — especially aesthetics (clutter/hierarchy is the make-or-break here).

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Step 0 — Establish context before designing

• Audience & the decision they make — when and why they look at this, and what action the data should drive. (User research is the real answer; ask if unknown.) This is the filter for what belongs.
• Dashboard type:
  • Operational — real-time, monitoring, needs an immediate response (patient vitals, flight traffic). Comprehensive at a glance, frequent updates.
  • Analytical — for investigation and thoughtful decisions (a sales dashboard); not time-sensitive, supports drill-down.
• Roles — one audience or many? Multiple roles → customization matters.
• Platform — screen size shapes how many widgets fit and the responsive layout.

State assumptions if proceeding without answers.

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The always-apply core (true for any dashboard)

• Start from the user's question, not the data you have. For each widget ask: "what decision does this support?" If nothing, cut it. Let goals + user needs + data nature pick the widgets.
• Don't overwhelm. Relevant few over comprehensive many. Density without hierarchy is a mess.
• Prioritize for scanning. People scan, not read. Put the most important metric where the eye lands first; arrange by importance.
• Group related content. Use containers, dividers, and white space so related metrics read as a group (common-region principle); section labels/titles act as visual anchors — make them distinct.
• Use white space to segment and highlight — it improves legibility in data-dense screens and gives key numbers breathing room.
• Keep structure consistent — shared alignment, title sizes, and margins across containers; this also makes responsive layouts scale.
• Keep comparison data visible together. Don't bury things users need to compare behind tabs/pop-ups; never hide always-needed info. Use tabs only for content that isn't compared side by side.
• Match the chart to the data (see reference below) — the single highest-leverage correctness decision.

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The context-dependent decisions (surface, don't auto-apply)

Decision	Apply when	Avoid / adapt when	Default recommendation
Operational vs. analytical framing	Real-time monitoring needs glanceable, comprehensive layout	Analytical use wants drill-down, less time pressure	Match layout/refresh to the type from Step 0
Which metrics/widgets to show	The metric supports a real decision	"Because we have the data" / vanity metrics	Ruthlessly cut to what answers the user's question
Level of detail / drill-down	Analytical dashboards benefit from overview → detail	Operational dashboards needing everything visible at once	Overview first, progressive drill-down; don't tab-hide comparisons
Chart type per metric	Pick by data intent (trend/compare/part-of-whole/correlation)	Decorative chart choices; pie charts for many categories	Match to data (reference below)
Customization by role	Multi-role systems (sales mgr vs. analyst)	Single, well-known audience (adds needless complexity)	Offer when roles genuinely differ
Real-time updates	Operational monitoring	Analytical review (constant refresh is noise)	Refresh cadence matched to decision speed

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Chart selection & honesty (quick reference)

Match the chart to the data intent:

• Bar — compare discrete categories. Line — trends over time. Area — trend + volume over time. Pie/Donut — parts of a whole (few slices only). Scatter — correlation between two variables. Bubble — three dimensions. Radar — compare multiple variables (few). Candlestick — financial price ranges.

Chart honesty & clarity (non-negotiable — these mislead or exclude users):

• Start axes at zero. A truncated baseline exaggerates differences and is misleading. (Deliberately misleading viz → flag with the dark-patterns audit.)
• No 3D chart styling — it distorts perceived values.
• Don't encode meaning with color alone — pair with icons/labels/shapes (→ accessibility).
• Horizontal labels, readable annotations, consistent color/markers, appropriate intervals (don't crowd a year into daily ticks), standard sharp-cornered bars, focus/unfocus states for multi-line charts.

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Validate the result (orchestration)

Hand-offs name each lens by its installable skill name. Invoke one only if that skill is installed; if it isn't, this skill's own core already carries these rules — proceed without it rather than blocking.

After generating or revising, hand the result to the audit lenses rather than declaring it done. These are candidate lenses — posture is set by docs/orchestration-policy.md, or route the whole thing through ux-design-review. Here, heuristics, dark-patterns, and microcopy are Tier A (auto-run); accessibility and aesthetics are Tier B (offered) — under an existing design system aesthetics is suppressed and accessibility narrows to usage. If the user invoked this skill for one specific thing, respect that scope.

• ux-aesthetics-audit (Tier B — offer; suppress under a design system) — the dashboard make-or-break: clutter, visual hierarchy, white space, container grouping, "is one thing clearly most important?"
• ux-heuristics-audit (Tier A) — recognition, visibility of status (esp. operational), user control (customization), keeping comparisons visible.
• ux-accessibility-audit (Tier B — offer; narrow under a design system) — chart color not the sole encoding, contrast, labelled sections, keyboard access to interactive widgets.
• ux-dark-patterns-audit (Tier A) — misleading visualization: truncated axes, 3D distortion, cherry-picked intervals.
• ux-microcopy-audit (Tier A) — section titles, labels, and annotations are clear and consistent.

If aesthetics flags overload, return to the gate: cut widgets back to the ones that answer the user's question.

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Common do/don't patterns

❌ Don't	✅ Do
Show every metric you have	Show the few that support a decision
Equal visual weight for everything	Prioritize; most important where the eye lands first
Loose widgets floating on one plane	Group with containers, dividers, white space, labelled sections
Hide comparison data behind tabs	Keep side-by-side comparisons visible together
Decorative chart choice / pie with 12 slices	Match chart to data intent
Truncated y-axis / 3D bars	Zero baseline, flat charts — don't mislead
Color-only series legend	Color + icon/label/shape
Vertical/diagonal axis labels	Horizontal, readable labels
Ship without checking	Hand off to aesthetics + heuristics + accessibility

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Source lessons (Uxcel)

• How to Design Dashboards for Better Analytics
• Types of Charts & When to Use Them
• Best Practices for Designing Charts