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Has it ever happened to you that you’ve opened a dashboard and all the data that you were presented with created a sort of blockage in your brain, and you just froze, not being able to comprehend or analyze the data or even know what’s going on?
You’re just staring at the screen, and there’s nothing, simply because what you’re looking at is so overly (and unnecessarily) complicated. It’s not necessarily that it’s the information that’s the problem here; it’s more about how that same information is being presented to the end user.
Think about it – if you just dump lots of information on someone, it’s only natural that they’ll get overwhelmed. The user’s brain will have to work overtime just to sort all of that data out. This is what’s known as ‘cognitive load’.
And because of cognitive load, most people just walk away and look up your competitors in hopes of finding the same information, but in an easy-to-digest format.
The answer to solving cognitive load isn’t making things prettier but making them clearer and more structured to drop that mental effort.
Read on if you want to learn how to do that.
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Here are some ways to make any kind of complex information look simpler.
When the user opens up the main dashboard, they need to be presented with what’s most important. Not with everything.
How do you achieve this? Simple; by building a visual hierarchy, meaning you should use size, contrast, and placement to say, “Look here first.” Your main number goes at the top, all big and bold. For example, if it’s a sales dashboard, then total revenue needs to dominate that top area, and any support metrics go below it so they don’t compete.
Basically, you need to decide where users should look; they’ll get confused and annoyed.
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Today’s dashboards need live data streams – if you want to stay competitive, that is – and if you don’t understand how the information is structured, the whole thing can quickly fall apart.
Let’s explain this with a real-world example:
Say you’re designing an environmental platform that tracks weather in real time. A good way to start is to sketch temperature maps and wind speeds, but in order to actually make it work, you have to understand the data behind it, which is where weather API documentation can help.
If you can understand that structure before you start designing, you can create components that match the data.
Lines and boxes are okay when you need to separate some things, but they’re not absolutely necessary. Empty space can do that, too.
Things that are close together are related, and things that are far apart are separate; it’s as simple as that. It’s called proximity, and it’s hardwired into all our brains. So when you place a metric, its table, and a small trend arrow close together, the user knows this is a family.
If you can align the metrics in a clean grid, the layout will feel nice and organized.
Your eye can smoothly go from one thing to the other.
Typography can be a navigation system; if it’s predictable, then users know where they are.
So build a simple, consistent type scale. Choose one style for headlines, one for subheads, one for body, and one for captions. Then just stick to it, and that’s it. When every headline looks the same, the brain learns that big, bold text means something important.
Irregular sizing completely destroys that rhythm and takes extra mental effort to get through.
It turns out our brains are quite excellent at detecting and processing patterns. This is why you’ll notice that you’ll almost instantly spot a trend in a line chart. But reading the same trend described in a paragraph is effort, so whenever you can, replace written explanations with visuals.
Choose the type of your chart based on the purpose.
For example, if you want to show how the temperature changes over a year, a line chart is the way to go. If you want to compare sales across regions, a simple bar chart is the obvious choice.
Remember that you’re showing, not telling.
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Many people make the mistake of thinking that, in order to make complicated information simpler, they need to dumb it down. But that’s probably the worst way to go about this, and it doesn’t even guarantee you’ll manage to do what you wanted to.
There’s no need to shrink data or hide details; all you need to do is organize the mess.
Thinking about things like hierarchy, real inputs, spacing, and smart visuals isn’t exactly what most people would describe as ‘fun’.
But regardless, all of these combined together can make even the most complex topic simple to grasp. Using these, you can say “Oh, no, what am I looking at?” moment into the “Oh, I get it now!” moment.
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If you found this post useful you might like to read these post about Graphic Design Inspiration.
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