23. Report and Dashboard Design Principles
23.5 Storytelling With Data
A good report tells a story: What happened? Why? What should we do?
- Context: titles that state the insight, not just the chart content. "Kolhapur had the fastest average delivery this month" is better than "Avg Delivery Time by City".
- Comparison: numbers mean little alone. Compare with last year, target or average.
- Focus: highlight the key bar or line; grey out the rest.
- Flow: pages ordered from summary to detail; bookmarks or page navigation guide the reader.
- Action: where possible, point to the next step (e.g. a drill-through page listing the customers behind a decline).
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
A common storytelling mistake is showing every chart you built. Lead with the message ("Delivery time rose in Nagpur after 9 pm"), then show the supporting visual. Remove charts that don't support the story on that page. Clear?
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
Storytelling मधली एक common चूक म्हणजे तुम्ही बनवलेला प्रत्येक chart दाखवणं. आधी message सांगा ("Delivery time rose in Nagpur after 9 pm"), मग त्याला आधार देणारा visual दाखवा. त्या page वरच्या story ला आधार न देणारे charts काढून टाका. समजलं का?
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
Storytelling की एक common गलती है अपना बनाया हर chart दिखा देना. पहले message बताओ ("Delivery time rose in Nagpur after 9 pm"), फिर उसे support करने वाला visual दिखाओ. जो charts उस page की story को support नहीं करते उन्हें हटा दो. समझ आया?