Information Design

Data Dashboard Design

Design Dashboards People Actually Read

12 lessons4 modules9h 20m durationbeginner level

Instructor: StretchLearn Faculty

About this course

This course teaches the craft of dashboard design as an information-design discipline, not a chart-dumping exercise. You will learn how to structure a screen on a grid, choose the chart that answers the actual question, encode status and magnitude with colour responsibly, strip noise out of dense tables, and produce a spec a developer can build without guessing. Every lesson uses named tools, real measurements, and worked examples from Tableau, Power BI, and Figma.

Curriculum

Module 1: Foundations: What a Dashboard Is For3 lessons

Audience, Decision, and the Three Dashboard TypesPreview45m
How People Read a Screen: Z-Pattern, Hierarchy, and Pre-Attentive Cues🔒45m
The Layout Grid: 12 Columns, Modules, and Whitespace🔒45m

Module 2: Choosing the Right Chart3 lessons

Match the Chart to the Question🔒50m
Charts to Use Sparingly, and Charts to Avoid🔒45m
KPI Tiles, Big Numbers, and Reference Context🔒45m

Module 3: Colour, Tables, and Decluttering3 lessons

Colour Encoding for KPIs and Status🔒50m
Decluttering Data Tables: Data-Ink and Chartjunk🔒45m
Typography, Number Formatting, and Density🔒45m

Module 4: Building and Handing Off in Tableau, Power BI, and Figma3 lessons

From Wireframe to Build in Tableau and Power BI🔒50m
Interactivity, Filters, and Drill-Down Without Overwhelm🔒45m
The Handoff Spec: Tokens, States, and Annotations🔒50m