14.15. Discussion: Dashboard Design and Layout Considerations

When designing a dashboard in Looker Studio, it's essential to consider the architecture and layout while catering to the specific needs of different departments within an organization. To create an effective and easy-to-understand dashboard, it's important to focus on usefulness and follow a logical structure.

Getting Creative with Layouts and Understanding User Needs

You can explore creative layouts and add graphics to your dashboards, but always prioritize usefulness to ensure your dashboards effectively answer specific questions or sets of questions. Each section of a dashboard should flow naturally from top to bottom and left to right, accompanied by appropriate titles, subtitles, and footers to enhance understanding.

Communicating with Stakeholders

Understanding what stakeholders are looking for is vital when designing tailored dashboards. Asking them about their preferences and the data they want to see can help you create functional and visually appealing dashboards. Inquire about how they will use the data and what they expect to find so that you can optimize your dashboard accordingly.

Iterating and Improving Dashboard Design

Designing dashboards is an iterative process. After presenting the initial draft, you can make adjustments based on how the stakeholder plans to use the dashboard. Carefully considering the user experience is key to creating effective dashboards that cater to the user's unique needs.

Takeaways

When creating dashboards in Looker Studio, focus on the following aspects:

Cater to the needs and preferences of each department or individual user.
Understand how stakeholder-specific data requirements influence the dashboard layout.
Prioritize meaningful communication and usefulness in dashboard design.
Iterate and improve upon initial drafts based on user feedback to create tailored solutions.

Designing useful and easily understandable dashboards requires balancing creativity with practicality while considering the end-user experience.