The canvas and pages
Laying out visuals, and splitting a dashboard across pages.
A dashboard is one or more pages, each a canvas of widgets you place freely.
Layout
Drag to move, drag an edge to resize. Widgets can be layered, aligned and grouped with shapes. Zoom in and out to work on detail or check the whole page.
Pages
Pages appear as tabs. Use them to separate audiences or topics — an executive summary on one, the detail behind it on the next — rather than to fit more charts in.
Each page has its own layout and its own filters. A page can be hidden, which keeps it out of the tab strip while remaining reachable by a button — the usual way to build a drill-down destination that is not meant to be browsed directly.
Laying out a page people can read
- Top left is read first. Put the headline number there.
- Group related visuals and separate groups with space or a shape.
- Align edges. Nothing makes a dashboard look unconsidered faster than five boxes at four different heights.
- Leave room. A dense page is not more informative, it is just harder.