Building Executive Dashboards in Domo – 5 Design Principles That Drive Action

Today, the world moves at a breakneck speed. Therefore, decision-makers need quick, effortless access to the vital information they need. 

Static, archaic reports don’t cut it anymore. Spreadsheet numbers look like a farrago, too! 

This is where executive dashboards step in. Domo, one of the world’s leading cloud-based business intelligence platforms, helps you create dynamic and interactive dashboards. These help executives easily monitor performance, identify trends, and take action.

As providers of Domo consulting services, we consider it crucial to adhere to a few design principles to make the dashboard more meaningful and action-oriented.

Accordingly, we’ve discussed five of them in this blog.

The Significance of Executive Dashboards in Domo

Before we delve into the design principles, let’s understand the value of executive dashboards in Domo. Here’s what makes them crucial.

  • Provide a consolidated view of critical business data
  • Offer insights in an intuitive and easily readable format
  • Monitor performance in real time
  • Identify trends and potential issues
  • Track key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Align teams and departments with common, shared objectives
  • Make informed and data-driven decisions

Reaping the above outcomes, in the form of benefits, is easier when you build your executive dashboards in a comprehensible and visually appealing manner. It requires following some straightforward yet effective design principles. Let’s look at five of them.

5 Design Principles to Follow While Building Executive Dashboards in Domo

From maintaining conciseness to aligning the dashboard with business goals, here are five design principles to consider while creating executive dashboards in Domo.

1. Keep it Concise and High-Level.

Top executives are usually swamped. Hence, they would have little to no time to wade through each intricate detail, unless absolutely required. Accordingly, your dashboard must be a summary that provides a high-level insight into the data you intend to show.

Here are some ways of doing it.

  • Prioritize only the five to seven metrics per dashboard
  • Avoid cluttering the space with too many charts or complex visualizations
  • Link out to underlying reports or drill-down capabilities with Domo if required
  • Keep it like a newspaper headline – short, yet informative and impactful

2. Use Compelling Visuals

Visual information is much easier to process than text. Therefore, you must use graphs, charts, and other modern visualizations that convey trends and patterns at a glance. 

Thankfully, Domo provides various visualization options such as bar charts, advanced heatmaps, and others. Some best practices in this regard can include;

Choose charts based on the data to be shown. For example, a pie chart shows proportions well. On the other hand, a bar chart helps you display comparisons effectively. Next, line charts can help track trends and gauge performance.

Use colors to create impact and highlight key metrics. For instance, red can signal a performance dip, while green can denote growth or success.

Transform your executive dashboards into decision driving tools with Diacto’s expert Domo implementation services

3. Make Data More Interactive

At times, a deep dive is necessary for executives to understand something better. In situations like these, a static dashboard that shows only high-level insights may not suffice. This is where clickable data points can help. Clicking on a specific one must provide valuable context that drives informed decisions. Best practices include;

Use interactive filters and drill-downs to let users explore data in more detail. For instance, an executive may want to discover region-based revenue trends. Domo’s interactive features can allow them to expand data or filter specific time periods by simply clicking on the respective point.

Ensure you keep views customizable. It will allow users to personalize their dashboard by selecting the metrics they want to see or adjusting time frames.

4. Integrate Real-Time Data

Whether your data originates from marketing platforms or some financial software, you must have access to real-time data to enable informed decision-making. 

Domo is known for its ability to pull data from various sources. So, why not use it? 

Essentially, you must design a dashboard to display real-time or near-real-time data to ensure the executives make decisions based on the latest available information.

A couple of practices include automating data syncing to auto-update the dashboard with the latest data from your sources. Domo connectors can help here. Another practice is to highlight real-time data on the dashboard so that decision-makers can quickly identify areas or concerns that require immediate attention.

5. Align Dashboard with Business Objectives

Your dashboard design must reflect your business’s strategic objectives. Thus, the metrics you select should align with the company’s objectives. 

For instance, if your executives want to venture into new geographies, your dashboard must focus on market penetration, client acquisition, challenges, and opportunities.

Go Beyond Information. Create an Impact with Domo’s Intriguing Executive Dashboards!

Executive dashboards are an excellent way to help you deliver information and impact precisely. However, implementation matters! This is where our Domo consulting and Domo implementation services enter. At Diacto Technologies, we help your companies optimize each benefit of Domo by helping them implement it comprehensively and derive more value from each feature, including executive dashboards.

Want to discover more about our support and the value we can deliver? Please email us at info@diacto.com.