Dashboard Guidelines
Use dashboards to display various widgets on a screen to provide an overview of what the product is doing and how much value it is making for the customer, as well as highlighting any errors or missed opportunities.
Dashboard Principles
The dashboard answers these questions:
- Am I getting a return on my marketing investment (ROI) through this product?
- Is it working properly right now? Do I need to fix anything?
- Am I using it to the best advantage? Are there any tips to help me improve? What features am I not using?
- What is my potential reach with this product, and how many of my customers am I actually reaching?
- What features are currently running?
- What is my current top performer of the day (Dynamic Delighter)?
Best Practices
Dashboards should:
- Always be the landing page of a product.
- Contain two symmetric columns: a full-width widget takes up both columns, and a half-width widget takes up just one column.
- Be arranged in a grid with each row featuring widgets of the same height.
- Provide a way for users to rearrange widgets as they wish, and automatically save their settings.
- Have a title that follows this naming convention:
[Product Name] Dashboard— e.g. Predict Dashboard, Triggered Email Dashboard. Use "Dashboard" only for the main Dashboard.
Try to avoid:
- Having a dashboard accessible only through a sub-menu.
- Communicating information, meaning, or context through the layout and positioning of widgets (a widget should be understandable on its own).
- Creating a dashboard with 3 or more columns.
- Creating a dashboard with asymmetric columns.
- Putting widgets with uneven height next to each other.
- Having a single half-width widget in the last row when there is an odd number of widgets:
- Consider making one of them full-width — only if it makes sense.
- Consider omitting one widget if possible.
- Consider merging two widgets if possible.
- Never invent unnecessary widgets just to fill space.
- Having fewer than 4 widgets, so the dashboard does not appear empty or half-complete.
