
One Single Analytics Dashboard Designing an interface & user experience deliver digital analytics to high-level "non-web" strategic leaders
I collaborated with IT to define requirements and constraints for a dashboarding project. I also identified an analytics partner and set objectives for a tool that would integrate with existing infrastructure and support resources.
Challenge One person to manage turnkey analytics for global corporation
After writing the business case, leadership was now interested in analytics but my manager told me several times ‘we will not add headcount to perform the analytics role’.
The challenge was to plan an efficient workflows and service that could, be managed while I also handled a full-time workload. The solution would need to adapt to further growth of the program and new digital trends.
Objective
Reduce workflow efforts
make it possible for a single resource to produce multiple different templates.
One single dashboard
our digital lead's vision was for a single dashboard experience that could adapt for different reports and user needs
Lower the technical learning curve
the experience of managing and using the dashboard needed to match a semi-technical and purely strategic user
Addressing an unspoken need
Managing & prioritize features
The culture of the organization was one in which innovation was spoken to but change was commonly resisted in the way employees went about their work.
I built a framework of features and factors to describe to stakeholders how would customize the experience for each my audience personas .
What kind of report do you need? Business need
Content Strategy
Identify topic trends, protect the brand standard and report on content strategy.
Performance
Measure audience performance by section: growth trends, what are their behaviors and where are they coming from
Basics
- Site Performance & Health
- Earned/Owned/Paid Traffic
- User Device
- Publisher metrics
- Integrations
What kind of report do you need?

Build a report experience for different useage scenes adaptable a format & interface for each specific scenario
Reporting Frequency
- Recurring Monthly
- Recurring Quarterly
- Ad hoc
Interface Features
- Customizable View - Sort/Filter
- Insights "At a Glance"
- Notification/Alerts
- Glossary of Terms
- Mobile Access
Reporting Format
- File Attachment
- Data Export
- Self-serve Dash
Data Profile
- Real-time
- Snapshot
What kind of report do you need?
Design Need
User Need

Basics report
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File AttachmentFormat
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Snapshot of Customizable ViewData
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Ad hocFrequency
-
SharableUI Feature

Key metrics report
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Self-serve DashFormat
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Snapshot with insights "At a Glance"Data
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Recurring QuarterlyFrequency
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GlossaryUI Feature

Content report
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Data exportFormat
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Real-time using mobile accessData
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Recurring MonthlyFrequency
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Customizable ViewUI Feature

Tactical scenario
Team lead needs to send report to IT business analyst to make a software purchase decision.

Strategic scenario
Leadership team will view digital trends during a department meeting in a conference room.

Operational scenario
Publisher responds to navigation change request from a content author on his phone.
Design execution
Visual design
View first sketches, mockups & notes
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Key design elements
Familiarity and convention were key values to my audience. I used parts from the company’s icon collection and I repurposed charts, styling and colors from other current communication reports to make digital analytics look familiar.
Icon library
Chart styles
Brand style guide
Stakeholder management
Picking a dashboard platform
Functional Features
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Integration with Microsoft platformMust have
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Integration with Google AnalyticsNice to have
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FlexibilityMust have
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Support Level AgreementNice to have
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Report types: e.g. Sharable/PrintableMust have
IT Business Requirements
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Legal Requirements - GIPPA communications
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Existing contractional agreement

our choice
A key factor was enterprise integration, we were a Microsoft O365 shop.
I gathered data points from the measurement framework. When I met with our IT Business Analyst to pick our platform and our project took a curve we learned of new business requirements that required us to make some tradeoff to move forward. Even though we primarily got data from Google Analytics, Power Bi offered technical and financial benefits.Â
Key Update - 2018
Fix problems for enterprise Power users
During delivery of the final version many pain points came up from the initial platform choice. Our IT Business Analyst had so bought in on our vision for the One-single analytics dashboard that he won a major victory for us by winning legal approval to use Google Analytics for all platforms.

in 2018 we moved the dashboard to Google Data studio
Outcome
I took a user-focused approach to design and function. and the final solution included custom designed dash views; automatic data import; and self serve features like PDF exports and report embeds.
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Dashboard UI features

One single dashboard​
A simple outline streamlines finding all reports and pagination is persistent on top nav.​​

Site Filter​
The site filter allows users to quickly access one section of the site.

Customizable view
Use drop down filters to interact with screen data. The "At a glance" info boxes provide quick takeaways and insights.​​

Sharable reports
No more sharing email screenshots. Even the executive team can pull up an interactive link or managers can send PDF.
Find it in one place
The redesigned cover page features brand and a neatly organized "site map".


Usage trends
We relied heavily on iconography instead of the bar charts and graphs of previous versions.


Get to know the audience
The visitor demographics report provides a simplified view how the audience of the website grows and changes.

