Create interactive dashboards to stand out from the crowd

Dashboards are useful across most industries, as all companies have specific metrics and key goals they care about. From retail and education to big business and personal goals, dashboards can help anyone.

Here’s how dashboards can make your life easier:

1. Track the metrics that matter. Dashboards help you stay focused on the metrics that matter to your business. They are the best way to analyze company performance and spot problems that need to be addressed. 

2. Easy to understand at a glance. Dashboards effectively take complex data and visualize them in bite-sized charts, tables, or maps. Data visualizations are crucial for understanding and readability. 

3. Dashboards save time. Dashboards put all the information you need in one place. You can view key metrics without wasting time navigating across different systems, tools, and data sources.

4. Quickly share data with executives and team members. Dashboards give other people access to important data. Team members can share KPIs with others from desktop and mobile devices, and managers can grant public and private access to view different levels of information.

5. Spot problems early. The more you know about how your business is performing, the better chance you have to stay on track. Dashboards help spot issues or potential problems early on, giving you the opportunity to take a closer look and adjust strategy.

1. Log in to Infogram.

2. Select "Dashboard templates".

3. Start with a blank template or use a ready-made designer template.

4. Add charts, tables, images, text, and other elements to your project.

5. Share a dashboard with your team.

1. Keep the design of your dashboard simple. Make it easy to read so viewers will understand the data quickly. Compare your performance to previous periods. This helps viewers understand what performance metrics are exceeding expectations and what needs to be improved.

2. Don't try to show everything on your dashboard. Highlight the most important KPIs for your department or industry. You don’t want to overload people with too much information.

3. Display the most important metrics with larger font sizes. This draws people’s attention to key performance metrics first.

4. Design dashboards that are responsive and easy to read on all devices. Make sure people can view dashboards outside of the office from mobile phones or tablets.

5. Choose the right charts for your dashboard. Learn more about how to pick the right chart here.

6. Use color wisely: Be consistent, use light or neutral colors for visualizations, and add strong colors to attract attention.

Adding pages to your project is possible in all template projects (except the single chart and map projects).

To add a page: 

1. Deselect any charts or objects in your project or click outside the project canvas.

2. Click the Add page button in the right sidebar. There you will be able to select a blank canvas or one of the predefined pages.

3. Delete a page by selecting it in the editor or in the settings panel on the right and by clicking the backspace key on your keyboard. To reuse a page, make a copy with the Duplicate button.

Change the order by dragging and dropping pages up and down the list.

There are other ways you can upgrade pages in your project:

1. For more on adding transitions to pages, head over to the article about adding and editing page transitions.

2. For more on creating a clickable summary for easier navigation within pages, head over to the article about page linking.

3. For more on how to add page numbers, head over to the article about customizing the footer.

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Structured content is so much easier to navigate. Before starting a project, try to imagine what you want the end result to look like. Ask yourself: What page size do I want to choose for my project? How do I want to structure my page? Answers to these questions will set you up for success and a beautifully structured visualization.

Tip: Layout settings are available in infographic, dashboard, report, and other template projects. Choose a template and repurpose it for a quick start.

Once in the editor, use Layout options (Show guides and Show layout) to arrange objects on the canvas.  

To enable guides:   

1. Click Layout in the bottom left corner of your editor.

2. Enable the Show guides option.

3. Move objects around the page to adjust their position with respect to each other.

Tip: Start adding objects from the top left section of the page. Use the first object to align all other objects. 

To use the layout tool:

1. Click on Layout in the bottom left corner of your editor.

2. Switch on the Show guides option. You’ll see pink columns with lines appear on the canvas.

Tip: Use columns and lines to the group and align objects. Remember to always separate groups that are not related.

3. Use the Spacing slider to adjust white space on the sides of the page. Use the Number of columns slider to choose how many columns you wish to appear on the page.

Tip: A good rule of thumb is to work with twice as many columns as groups you have. For instance, if you plan on dividing the page into two blocks, use at least 4 columns (2 for each block). That way you can be more precise in arranging objects in each block, making sure they are evenly aligned and with equal margins.

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1. Click on the Get started button in the top right corner of the homepage.

2. Sign up with Google, Facebook, or email. If you choose to sign up with Google or Facebook, simply login to your account when asked to do so. If you wish to sign up with your email address, enter the email and your desired password, then hit the Signup button.

3. Provide some basic information about yourself. Enter your first and last name, indicate what kind of organization you belong to, and specify your role. You will then be able to continue with the Basic plan or choose from any of the available paid plans. View more

A picture is worth a thousand words, so make your infographic or data visualization stand out with beautiful images. Infogram supports JPG, PNG, and even animated SVG files. 

To upload an image to the project:

1. Click the Add graphics button in the left sidebar.

2. Browse the vast and free-to-use (CC) image, icon, flag, GIF, and sticker library or click on the My uploads tab at the top to upload a photo.

3. Click Upload and choose a file from your computer, or alternatively drag and drop the image file from your computer right into Infogram's editor. The file will automatically be uploaded to the graphics gallery.

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1. Select the image you wish to transfer into your project.

2. Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+C (Windows) or CMD+C (Mac) to copy.

3. Paste the image into an open project using the CTRL+V (Windows) or CMD+V (Mac) keyboard shortcut.

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1. Repeat the previous steps to drag or paste an image into your project.

2. Right-click the image and choose the Send to back option.

3. To adjust contrast, use the Transparency slider in the right sidebar.

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1. Click out of any selected objects.

2. Click Add background image on the settings panel on the right. Choose an image from the media library or upload your own (up to 10 MB in size).

3. Now you can adjust the image transparency by using the slider or change the image by clicking Change image.

4. To remove the background image simply click the X button next to Change image.

For other ways on how to change your project's background, please read the article about Changing the background.

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The mask option allows you to place an icon over the image and mask everything around its edges. Use a circle, an arrow, a heart, or any other icon from the search bar.

1. Add an image from the Add graphics icon in the left-side panel. Choose one from our database or upload your own. Make sure the file does not exceed 10MB.

2. Select the image, then click Mask in the right-side settings panel.

3. Look up the icon shape you want to use as a mask.

4. Drag the mask to position it over the image and hit ENTER or Apply the mask.

5. Drag the corners of the image to resize it.

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1. Add an image from the Add graphics icon in the left-side panel. Choose one from our database or upload your own. Make sure the file does not exceed 10MB.

2. Select the image, then click Crop in the right-side settings panel.

3. Use the pink dotted lines to choose the area in the image you wish to crop.

4. Hit ENTER on your keyboard and watch the image resize.

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1. Select the image you have added and click inside the Tooltip text box in the right-side panel.

2. Write the text that you want to be displayed when hovering over the image.

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