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· Product · Data
The case for boring dashboards
Why the most useful screen in your product is probably the least exciting one — and how to design it on purpose.
Every product team eventually builds a dashboard, and most of them build the same one: a grid of equal-sized cards, each with a chart, each fighting for attention. It looks impressive in a pitch deck. It’s exhausting to use on a Monday morning.
A dashboard is an answer, not a menu
The best dashboards answer one question well. What’s the number that matters? Is it moving in the right direction? Is there anything I need to do?
If a card doesn’t help answer one of those, it belongs on another screen.
Rank, don’t arrange
Hierarchy is the whole job. Give the most important number the most space, the second most important a little less, and so on. If everything is the same size, nothing is important.
- 1
- Headline number
- 1
- Trend
- 3–5
- Supporting details
Let it be quiet
Boring is a feature. A calm screen that tells someone “everything’s fine” in two seconds is doing exactly what it should — and leaves room for the moment when something isn’t.