By Liz DiLuzio

Last week, two colleagues and I presented about dashboarding in Detroit at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference.

By the time we began, the room was bursting at the seams. People stood along the walls and sat on the floor near the front.

Many of the questions shared the same starting point: where do we go from here? Some organizations were just starting to think about dashboards. Others had tried and found that the results were harder to use than they expected.

This is striking because the purpose of dashboards is quite simple: put real-time information in the hands of the people who need it, when they need it.

What distinguishes them from a PDF report is that they allow the viewer to explore their own questions through interactive visuals without needing to analyze raw data or request a custom report.

When they work, dashboards become powerful tools for everyday decision making. Turning that promise into something that works in practice requires not just the right software but thoughtful design.

Our conversation reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly in evaluation and analytics work: dashboards succeed or fail based on how well they are designed for the people using them.

From that conversation, a few principles stood out.

3 Ideas from Me

1. Start with the audience.
The first question in dashboard design is not “what data do we have?” It is “who needs to use this?” Different stakeholders act on different information. An executive director may need reach and effectiveness data to communicate with funders. A program manager may need to know whether tasks are on schedule or how this month’s outputs compare to last month or last year. A dashboard becomes useful when it reflects the decisions its audience is responsible for making.

2. Structure the page so the insights appear quickly.
The most effective dashboards show restraint. Four to six charts are usually enough. Place the most important insight in the top left, where most viewers begin scanning, and keep the key information above the fold. Group visuals around a shared theme and arrange them in a logical progression. Context matters as much as the numbers themselves. Comparisons to past performance, targets, or benchmarks help viewers interpret what they are seeing.

3. Use aesthetics deliberately.
A technically correct dashboard can still go unused. People return to tools that feel intuitive and well considered. Color should signal meaning rather than decoration. Consistent typography, spacing, and branding create coherence. White space allows the eye to move comfortably across the page. Thoughtful filters and small interactive touches can reward curiosity and encourage exploration. When the design feels intentional, people are more likely to engage with the data.

2 Quotes from Others

“The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.”

   {John Tukey}

“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with their heart, seeing with their eyes.”

   {Daniel H. Pink quoting Roman Krznaric}

1 Question for You

Which metrics on your dashboard actually changes someone’s behavior?

Interested in going deeper? 

If you’ve been curious about dashboarding but haven’t yet had the opportunity to try it, we’re offering Getting Started Skill Sprints in Tableau, Power BI, and Looker Studio this April, designed to take participants from no prior experience to building their first visualization. We also offer a workshop on the basics of dashboarding in Tableau, available both live and asynchronously.