Dashboard Design Prompt Templates

**Dashboard Requirements: E-commerce Operations**

**Purpose statement**: Enable operations team to manage daily fulfillment, identify issues before they impact customers, and make staffing decisions.

**User workflow**:
1. Morning: Check order volume, set staffing for the day
2. Throughout day: Monitor SLA compliance, spot delays
3. As needed: Investigate specific issues, escalate problems

**Required views**:

**Section 1: Today's Snapshot (Top row, KPI cards)**
- Orders to ship today (count)
- Orders shipped so far (count + % of target)
- Orders at risk of missing SLA (count, red if > 0)
- Average fulfillment time today vs. target

**Section 2: Order Pipeline (Middle left)**
- Stacked bar or funnel: Orders by status (Received → Processing → Packed → Shipped → Delivered)
- Color code by SLA status (on track = green, at risk = yellow, breached = red)

**Section 3: SLA Tracker (Middle right)**
- Line chart: Rolling 7-day SLA compliance rate
- Current day's projected compliance based on current pace
- Threshold line at target (e.g. 95%)

**Section 4: Inventory Alerts (Bottom left)**
- Table: Products below reorder point
- Columns: SKU, name, current stock, days of supply, reorder status
- Sorted by days of supply ascending (most urgent first)

**Section 5: Carrier Performance (Bottom right)**
- Table: Carrier, packages in transit, average delivery time, issues today
- Highlight any carrier with delivery issues

**Filters**:
- Date (default: today)
- Warehouse location (if multiple)
- Carrier (for drilling down)

**Alerts to configure**:
- Slack/email when SLA compliance drops below 90%
- Alert when any SKU hits zero inventory
- Alert when carrier shows unusual delay patterns

**Data requirements**:
- Order data: Real-time from OMS
- Inventory: Sync every 15 minutes
- Carrier tracking: API refresh every 15 minutes

**Success criteria**: Operations manager can identify and respond to fulfillment issues within 30 minutes of occurrence.

**Layout Design: Executive Daily Dashboard**

```
+--------------------------------------------------+
| [Filters: Date Range | Region] [Logo] | <- 60px header
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Revenue | Orders | Conv Rate | Avg Order | <- 120px KPI row
| $1.2M | 4,523 | 3.2% | $265 |
| ▲ 12% | ▲ 8% | ▼ 0.2% | ▲ 5% |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| | |
| Revenue Trend | Top Products | <- 400px
| (Line chart, 30 days) | (Horizontal bar) |
| | |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| | |
| Geographic Heat Map | Traffic Sources | <- 300px
| (By region/country) | (Donut chart) |
| | |
+--------------------------------------------------+
```

**Positioning rationale**:

1. **KPIs at top**: First thing executives see. Shows health at a glance. Include comparison (▲▼) so they don't have to calculate change.

2. **Revenue trend prominent**: Largest chart, left side. Eyes naturally go here first after KPIs. 30-day view shows recent performance without noise.

3. **Top products top-right**: Answers 'what's selling?' which is a common follow-up question after seeing revenue.

4. **Map bottom-left**: Geographic view for companies with regional presence. Less prominent because it's reference info, not daily action item.

5. **Traffic sources bottom-right**: Shows acquisition mix. Useful context but not primary focus for operations.

**Tableau-specific tips**:
- Use a vertical container for KPIs so they resize proportionally
- Set dashboard to 'Automatic' sizing with min dimensions of 1200x800
- Use floating objects sparingly (only for logo and maybe filters)
- Add parameter for date range toggle (Last 7 / 30 / 90 days)

**Color guidance**:
- Revenue: Blue (positive association)
- Conversion rate: Use conditional formatting (green > target, red < target)
- Keep it to 3-4 colors max to avoid visual noise

**Dashboard Critique: Website Performance**

**Core problem**: This is a data dump, not a dashboard. It shows everything possible instead of answering specific questions.

**Issues identified**:

1. **Too many charts (12 + table)**: Violates the 5-7 rule. Users can't process this much information at once.

2. **Three pie charts**: Pie charts are hard to read, and you don't need three. Device type and browser are rarely actionable.

3. **Redundant metrics**: Sessions and pageviews tell similar stories. Bounce rate and avg session duration are inversely related.

4. **No comparisons**: Raw numbers without context (vs. last week? vs. target?) are hard to interpret.

5. **Data table with 20 rows**: If users export to Excel, the dashboard isn't serving them.

**Recommended redesign**:

**Version 1: Executive View (Default)**
```
+----------------------------------------+
| Sessions | Conversion | Revenue | vs LW |
+----------------------------------------+
| Sessions trend (14 days) with comparison|
+--------------------+-------------------+
| Top landing pages | Traffic sources |
| (5 rows) | (bar chart) |
+--------------------+-------------------+
```

4 components total. Answers: How's traffic? Is it converting? Where's it coming from?

**Version 2: Deep Dive (Separate tab)**
Keep the detailed metrics for analysts who need them, but don't make executives wade through it.

**Specific changes**:

1. **Merge traffic sources pie into single horizontal bar**: Easier to compare, takes less space.

2. **Kill device/browser charts**: Unless you're debugging tech issues, these aren't actionable. Add as filters instead.

3. **Replace data table with top 5 list**: If they need full export, add a download button, but don't show 20 rows on the dashboard.

4. **Add comparisons everywhere**: 'Sessions: 45K (▲ 12% vs last week)' instead of just 'Sessions: 45K'.

5. **Add one insight text box**: 'Traffic up 12% driven by organic search. Conversion rate stable.' Human context helps.

**Test the redesign**: Show users the new version and ask them to answer specific questions. Time how long it takes compared to the old version.

**KPI Card Design: SaaS Executive Metrics**

**Layout**: 5 cards in a horizontal row, each card structured identically.

**Card template**:
```
+-------------------+
| MRR | <- Label (gray, small)
| $2.4M | <- Value (large, bold)
| ▲ 4.2% MoM | <- Primary comparison (with arrow)
| +18% YoY | 102% | <- Secondary comparisons
| plan |
+-------------------+
```

**Individual card specifications**:

**1. MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)**
- Format: Currency, abbreviated ($2.4M not $2,400,000)
- Primary comparison: vs. last month (MoM %)
- Secondary: vs. same month last year (YoY %), vs. plan (%)
- Color: Green if above plan, red if below
- Threshold: No specific alert (tracked for growth)

**2. Customer Count**
- Format: Number with comma (12,450)
- Primary comparison: Net change this month (+125)
- Secondary: New customers, churned customers breakdown
- Color: Standard (no threshold)
- Tooltip: Show gross adds vs. churn to explain net change

**3. Churn Rate**
- Format: Percentage with 1 decimal (4.2%)
- Primary comparison: vs. last month (absolute change: +0.3%)
- Secondary: vs. 12-month average
- Color: **Red if > 5%**, yellow if 4-5%, green if < 4%
- Alert: Requires action if red

**4. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)**
- Format: Percentage (108%)
- Primary comparison: vs. last month
- Secondary: vs. plan, vs. industry benchmark (typically 100-120%)
- Color: **Red if < 100%**, green if > 100%
- Explanation tooltip: 'Revenue from existing customers including expansions and churn'

**5. ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)**
- Format: Currency ($192)
- Primary comparison: vs. last month
- Secondary: vs. same month last year
- Color: Standard (track for trends, not threshold)
- Segmentation available: Click to see ARPU by plan tier

**Design principles applied**:

1. **Consistent format**: Same structure for all cards so eyes know where to look
2. **Color with meaning**: Only use red/green for metrics with clear good/bad thresholds
3. **Multiple comparisons**: One number without context is meaningless
4. **Abbreviations**: Executives don't need to see all digits
5. **Actionable thresholds**: Churn and NRR have clear 'pay attention' signals

**Interactivity**:
- Click any card to drill down to trend chart
- Hover for detailed breakdown and calculation explanation