What are you dashboard best practices?

To start a little on philosophy side, let's begin with Paul Grice, a famous English scholar. He noted that all conversations follow a basic set of rules, which people use to express themselves when speaking. The four basic rules, also known as Maxims are those of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner.

What is the connection with business dashboards best practices?

Well, what is very interesting is the fact that all these rules can be applied to business dashboard design, because they are indeed a mean of communication. They communicate numbers in tables, charts or other symbols to company’s managers or executives on all level. Grice’s rules are very important because if you follow them, you will be explicitly clear and direct, just what you need to be when designing a dashboard.

So, if you want to design high quality dashboard with just as much information as needed, a dashboard that is relevant, concise, brief, direct and clear, just be aware of Grice’s four Maxims and incorporate them in your work.

(You can find more on my blog, I wrote about it recently.)