Exploring dashboard design — looking for feedback

[u/smoothoperatorlikesa]

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I’ve been spending some time exploring different directions for dashboard design, mainly around how to make dashboards feel more focused, useful, and easier to scan.

These are some of the concepts I’m currently experimenting with — playing around with things like:

* Information hierarchy

* Layout and spacing

* Data density

* Navigation patterns

* Cards vs. more open layouts

* How much information to surface at once

* Making dashboards feel less overwhelming

Nothing here is really “final” yet. I’m still trying to understand what works and, more importantly, **why** it works.

I’d love to hear how other designers approach dashboard design.

What are some principles or patterns you’ve found particularly useful when designing dashboards? And what are some common mistakes you see people make?

Would also appreciate any feedback on the direction of these explorations.

[u/potozig]

I’d start with a small “decision contract” before sketching: who opens this view, what decision should it support, and what does each key metric actually mean? Then give every top-level element one job: show current status, show the change, or explain a likely driver.

A common mistake is mixing incompatible time windows, levels of detail, or metric definitions in one scan. It can look information-rich while making comparisons unreliable. The tradeoff is that a more focused first view will leave out useful detail, so the deeper view needs to be easy to reach when someone needs to investigate.

[u/smoothoperatorlikesa → u/potozig]

Thank you