---
title: "Dashboard Design Best Practices"
slug: "dashboard-design-best-practices"
updated: 2026-06-03T17:58:02Z
published: 2026-06-03T17:58:02Z
canonical: "documentation.decisions.com/dashboard-design-best-practices"
stale: true
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://documentation.decisions.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dashboard Design Best Practices

Consider the following best practices and considerations when designing dashboards for your business stakeholders.

## Understand What Your Stakeholders Need

Understand what information your business stakeholders need to either take action on information or make that information easier to do. Understanding what your stakeholders need guides you in how to design the Display-type [Screens](/v1/docs/screens) to provide that information. Consider the following examples.

| Stakeholder Need | Design Guidance |
| --- | --- |
| Manager needs an overview of team progress and status. | Include [Save Search Charts](/v1/docs/saved-searches) that show [Request](/v1/docs/requests-and-cases#what-is-a-request) and [Task](/v1/docs/tasks#what-is-a-task) status and when each started to provide insight on team member progress. |
| Team starts Requests for the same Processes frequently. | Use [Rich Text](/v1/docs/rich-text-control) controls with "button" images that link to Processes that may be started via Web Entry. See [Locate the URL to Start a Request Via Web Entry](/v1/docs/locate-the-url-for-processmaker-platform-locations#locate-the-url-to-start-a-request-via-web-entry). |
| Employees need information and files. | Design a homepage or portal that provides employee information and files employees may download via [File Download](/v1/docs/file-download-control) controls. |

## Design a Screen to Contain Your Dashboard

Prior to creating a [dashboard](/v1/docs/dashboards), ensure that the following ProcessMaker Platform assets exist for a dashboard:

- A Display-type Screen must contain the content for your dashboard. If the specific [Screen](/v1/docs/screens) for this dashboard does not exist, create that Screen.
- While a dashboard may contain any content that a Display-type Screen supports, consider any of the following for an effective dashboard:

  - Design Business management information (BMI) and key performance indicators (KPI) for intended business stakeholders. [Create one or more Saved Searches](/v1/docs/create-and-share-a-saved-search#create-and-share-a-saved-search), and then design [Saved Search charts](/v1/docs/create-a-saved-search-chart) from the Saved Search(es) to provide KPIs that your intended business stakeholders would inform them of business information they would value.
  - Design content in that Screen that this dashboard's intended audience would find valuable, including but not limited to [general information](/v1/docs/rich-text-control), [files to download](/v1/docs/file-download-control) or [preview](/v1/docs/file-preview-control) that this audience uses frequently, and [images](/v1/docs/image-control). Integrate information from a [Collection](/v1/docs/collections) record to provide relevant record data.
- Design the Screen as intended to display the dashboard's content. Consider the following when choosing the chart types:

  - **Line charts:** Use [line charts](/v1/docs/overview-of-saved-search-charts#line-chart) to plot data points over a period of time. They are compact, clear and precise. Line charts format is common and familiar to most people so they can easily be analyzed at a glance.
  - **Bar charts:** Use [bar charts](/v1/docs/overview-of-saved-search-charts#bar-chart-horizontal) to divide your data into neat categories. These charts are easy to understand, clear, compact, and have multiple use cases.
  - **Pie charts:** Although [pie charts](/v1/docs/overview-of-saved-search-charts#pie-chart) can be visually scanned easily and stakeholders notice the biggest slice immediately, challenges in terms of scale may result in the smallest slices being so small that they even cannot display.
- Keep the layout and order of information in mind. Follow these general design principles for stakeholders to more easily assimilate dashboard information:

  - Key information should display first, preferably in the top left region of the page. This mimics how written words are traditionally parsed. Research has shown that users will initially look to that area of a page when it has loaded.
  - Major trends, data points, and the most important tasks should be visible at a glance. After displaying the initial overview, provide more granular information.
  - Group charts, metrics, and functionality by theme with comparable items placed next or near each other.