Rules and best practices

• allow to find quickly the information within a page
• make it easy to find the page for the KPI user is looking for
• organize the pages by theme (types of indicators, cost or revenue centers, focus on key indicators, etc.)
• a page should only represent a single category of indicators or a single type of data (1 table page, 1 page with expenses, 1 ratio page for profitability etc.)
• for the same theme, position the global indicators at the top and the detail at the bottom
• for large tables, choose a dedicated page

What types of graphics

Histograms

• Illustrate results, illustrate the best periods
• Comparison and evolution
• Better for: value, amount. Less suitable for ratio and percentages.

Lines

• Illustrate a trend and evolution, not the details of the amounts
• Comparison, projection, evolution
• Better for: ratio and percentage. Less suitable for: value, amount

Pie charts

• No more than 6 sections, otherwise not readable
• Comparison and distribution without notion of time
• Use sparingly, cannot be the only graph for an indicator

Use of colors

The widget configuration allows

• define the color of the dataset (the curve, the bar of the histogram, the background line of a table, the portion of a pie chart)
• define the background color of the widget

Some advices on color use

• Color consistency: for an indicator repeated across multiple pages, use the same color or shades
• Widget background color: avoid dark colors
• Avoid red and green: instinctively perceived as positive / negative information
• Dataset N & N-1 of the same indicator: same shade of color where N is highlighted
• Real Dataset vs. forecast: choose a neutral color for the forecast