6 design principles for top dashboards: Understanding design

How to optimize your dashboard with perceptual psychology.

Without us realizing it, websites, programs or apps influence our perception and therefore also our actions. The reason is that they were designed in a specific way and certain rules were followed — the Gestalt Principles.
In this blog post, we'll use illustrative examples to show you how these design principles help you design an appealing and understandable dashboard. Using examples that are easy to understand, they will explain the core elements of successful design to you.
In our blog post”Ultimate guide to choosing the right metrics for an effective dashboard“We've already shown you how to distinguish important information and metrics on your dashboard from unimportant ones in order to tailor your dashboard to the needs of your target group. In the blog post on the topic”Dashboard Design GBasics”, we also gave you initial design tips for the perfect dashboard. Today, it's about design principles that take your dashboard design to the next level.

The origin of Gestalt principles.

The Gestalt principles provide a psychological approach to how the human brain senses and organizes visual information. The theory behind this was developed in the 1910s and 1920s by German psychologist May Wertheimer and his colleagues. Since then, it has found its way into various areas, including design theory.
The Gestalt principles deal with the perception of coherent objects and are based on the fact that humans draw on experience when processing information. When we look at a painting, for example, we don't see individual brushstrokes, but the entire picture.
So when graphic designers understand how viewers interpret visual information, they can consciously use Gestalt principles to highlight visual relationships and communicate more effectively.

Which principles are important for dashboard design and what do they say?

In Gestalt psychology, human perception is described as the ability to identify structures and ordering principles in sensory impressions. These are defined using the so-called Gestalt principles. They provide an explanation of why we see graphics as meaningful groupings and not as an accumulation of pixels and points. There are several dozen design principles — the most important 6 that play a role in designing a dashboard are listed below.

Principle of similarity

Elements on your dashboard can be the same or similar in color, shape, size, or orientation.
Here, elements that are similar are grouped by our perception and perceived as belonging together. At the same time, elements that differ in their characteristics are perceived as independent of each other.

Principle of proximity

Spatial proximity can make elements act as part of a unit. Use this knowledge for your dashboard by placing related items close together.
By the way, the Gestalt principles can also cancel each other out. For example, elements that are close together, even if they are different, are often perceived as part of a group.

Principle of conciseness

By deliberately highlighting a feature, individual elements can be set apart from other elements of your dashboard. For example, work with colors or variances in the size of the elements to bring them to the foreground.

Principle of continuity

The brain automatically fills in missing lines or continues meaningful sequels. That is why we tend to perceive objects arranged along a continuous line as coherent compared to other figures. That is also the reason why table rows and columns can be recognized as such even without dividing lines.

Common region principle

Elements that lie within a common region are seen as belonging together. As soon as you place a frame or a visual delimitation, e.g. in the form of colored areas or contour lines, around individual elements, the grouping changes.

Principle of connectedness

Interconnected elements are perceived as a single unit. The principle of connectedness can trump the principles of closeness and similarity. You can easily assign individual elements on the dashboard to each other, for example to display sequences of different process steps.

Should you consider all design principles when designing dashboards?

Clearly — no. But keep in mind how the psychology of design works in the human brain and what effects this can have on the viewer. So instead of indiscriminately distributing and arranging your elements on your dashboard, you should ask yourself in advance:

• Which elements belong together?
• What is particularly important and needs to be emphasized?
• What is the hierarchy behind the individual pieces of information?

Your checklist: And did you remember everything? The following is a short checklist for better memorization and direct implementation:

• Know your elements: Be aware of which elements belong together and which are important.
• Obey the laws: Whether you like it or not, the Gestalt principles work. It is therefore better to use them consciously to avoid unconscious incorrect attributions.
• Four eyes see more than two: So ask for feedback and check whether your dashboard also contains the message you want to convey.