A well-built dashboard isn’t just about having the right data – it’s about presenting that data in a way that people actually understand, trust and act on.
Business intelligence (BI) dashboards have become essential tools across industries – from healthcare systems tracking patient outcomes to retail brands monitoring inventory and sales performance. Organizations rely on dashboards to surface the metrics that drive decisions. However, the thing many teams discover the hard way, is that having a dashboard doesn’t mean people will use it (or use it as effectively as they could.)
The gap between a dashboard that exists and one that delivers value almost always comes down to the user experience (UX). UX is the discipline that bridges the gap between clean data into something a real person can look at, interpret and act on with confidence. Without UX engagement in dashboard design, even the most sophisticated BI investment can end up as an expensive tool that nobody opens.
Most organizations approach BI dashboards as solely a data engineering challenge. And, to be fair, the underlying architecture matters – clean data pipelines, well-modeled schemas, and reliable integrations are foundational. And, luckily, Concord has an expert BI team that has created essential BI dashboard architecture for hundreds of clients in that realm! But when the dashboard itself finally lands in front of a business user, the question shifts from “is the data accurate?” to “can I actually make sense of this?”
That second question is where we see many dashboards in the industry fail – and where Concord succeeds.
When a dashboard presents too many metrics at once, uses inconsistent visual hierarchies or buries critical insights behind layers of filters… users disengage. They go back to where they are comfortable – manual spreadsheets and one-off reports. Decision timelines stay lengthy and, sometimes, rely on “gut feelings” instead of the data sitting in front of them.
This is a UX problem – not a data problem.
Solving it requires the same design thinking that goes into any digital product: understanding who the users are, what decisions they need to make and what information they need to make those decisions well.
One of the most common mistakes in dashboard design is treating every user the same. Different roles mean different mental models, different priorities, different workflows and different levels of data fluency.
UX designers address this by grounding the product in research. Before any wireframes get drawn, a good UX process involves understanding those different users – how often and in what context they will be leveraging the dashboard. Our team is highly experienced in stakeholder interviews, workflow observation, user surveys, and workshops to dive into this information to map the decisions a user needs to make and working backwards to determine what data (and where) supports those decisions.
This human-centered approach ensures that dashboards aren’t designed around what data is available, but what data is needed and how it will be used. And that’s what sets Concord’s approach apart.
This distinction matters more than most teams realize.
Once you understand the user, the next challenge is organizing information in a way that supports how those users think. Information architecture and visual hierarchy are two UX concepts that are absolutely critical in dashboard design but often overlooked.
Information architecture is about structure – how data is grouped, what gets surfaced first and how a user navigates from a summary view to a detailed one. In a well-designed dashboard, users can start with a high-level picture of the information presented and drill down as needed without losing context versus a poorly designed dashboard where users find themselves clicking through tabs and applying endless filters attempting to find the information they are looking for.
Visual hierarchy is about emphasis and drives usability. It is about using size, color, position, spacing and shadowing to guide the user’s eye through the experience. This helps users more easily scan, identify the information they need and digest it without getting distracted or lost in a dashboard that highlights everything with the same design importance.
These aren’t about making aesthetic choices – they’re functional design decisions that directly affect how quickly someone can extract true meaning from the dashboard they are using.
The differences between a poorly designed dashboard that allows for observation and a well-designed dashboard that empowers action may seem subtle, but they are critical to driving meaningful decision-making at every level.
UX designers bring that difference by thinking through workflows that don’t end at the dashboard, but in the decision.
The BI landscape has evolved significantly. Modern platforms like Sigma are designed to give business users more direct access to data through familiar interfaces—think spreadsheet-style interactions connected to live warehouse data. This shift toward self-service analytics is powerful, but it also raises the UX stakes.
When more people across an organization can create and customize their own views of data, the risk of inconsistency, misinterpretation, and information overload increases. Without thoughtful UX governance—shared design patterns, standardized metric definitions, clear visual conventions—self-service can quickly become self-service chaos.
This is where UX designers play a critical strategic role. They establish the design frameworks and interaction patterns that keep self-service analytics usable and trustworthy at scale. They ensure that as dashboards proliferate across an organization, the experience remains coherent and the data remains interpretable.
The best dashboards are the ones that help the right people make better decisions, faster. That's a UX challenge as much as it is a data challenge and our approach to integrated cross-functional development helps our clients get more value from every dollar they invest in analytics.
Concord brings together data engineering, BI strategy, and UX design to build dashboards that people actually use. Whether you're standing up a new analytics platform or trying to improve adoption of an existing one, we can help you find the right approach. Contact us to start a conversation around your data visualization goals.
Not sure on your next step? We'd love to hear about your business challenges. No pitch. No strings attached.
