The Problem with Most Dashboards

Most business dashboards fail because they show data, not insight. A wall of charts is not a dashboard. It's a data dump. Effective visualisation tells a story: here's what's happening, here's why it matters, here's what to do.

Choose the Right Chart Type

Comparison: Bar charts (not pie charts. Humans are bad at comparing angles)

Trends over time: Line charts with clear axis labels

Distribution: Histograms or box plots

Correlation: Scatter plots

Composition: Stacked bars or treemaps

Design Principles That Matter

Reduce ink-to-data ratio: Remove gridlines, reduce colours, eliminate chart junk. Every pixel should earn its place.

Use colour intentionally: Grey for context, one accent colour for the data point that matters. Never use red/green for the only distinguishing factor (colour blindness).

The best visualisation is one where the viewer understands the insight in under 5 seconds.

Storytelling with Data

Structure your report like a narrative: context (what we're looking at), conflict (what changed or what's wrong), and resolution (what we should do). Lead with the insight, not the methodology.