When you start building a business dashboard, it can be really tempting to immediately start placing down visualizations, but oftentimes that leads to a messy container structure and makes it difficult to reposition charts if you end up needing to change your layout. It is important to be thoughtful when setting up your dashboard, as these key decisions serve as the foundation of how your dashboard will look. In this blog, I will be showing you 3 things you need to do when beginning to build a business dashboard.
Declare the dashboard size: The very first thing you should do after creating the dashboard is declare its size. By default, Tableau sizes all dashboards 1000 x 800 pixels, which is rarely the desired look for a business scenario. Typically, business dashboards have a width of between 1400 and 1600 pixels and a width of 800 to 1000 pixels, but this can vary based on the dashboard’s intended use. Make sure you have a plan of what sheets you intend to use and where so you are able to declare the size that is right for you!
Remove the Phone Layout: Did you know that Tableau automatically generates a phone layout for every dashboard? That means that someone who views your dashboard on their phone will see a completely different dashboard than the one you build for a laptop or PC. There are scenarios where you will want to intentionally create a bespoke layout for users primarily using their phones, but most developers simply forget to remove it and end up inadvertently releasing a separate, often messy layout for phones (I myself have been guilty of this on many occasions). In order to avoid this, try to make a habit of removing the automatically generated phone layout.
Float only your master container: This last one seems intuitive, but it is currently the industry standard for all professional Tableau developers. While you want your dashboard as a whole to be controlled by tiled containers, the master container, i.e. the container that ends up holding everything else inside of it, should be a floating object, positioned at (0,0), and sized to match the dimensions of the overall dashboard. This is due to the fact that if you place a tiled horizontal or vertical container onto an empty dashboard, it will automatically apply 8 pixels of outer padding that is not removable. Since we want to be able to declare padding in the way we deem most effective, we need a way around it, and currently the easiest way is to simply float the container and declare the size manually.
By beginning every single business dashboards with these 3 simple steps, you will ensure that no silly steps have been skipped and will have a strong foundation that will lead to a better, more polished look!