Lessons from founding Affinity Dashboards: how I think about dashboard design

From June 2020 to February 2022 I was the founder of Affinity Dashboards (Calgary, Canada). I’m not going to turn this into a startup story. Instead, here are the principles I hold about designing dashboards, and what founding a company changes in the way a designer thinks.

1. Start with the decision, not the data

A dashboard exists to help someone decide or act. Before choosing a single chart, ask: who opens this, how often, and what do they need to know to make their next move? Data that doesn’t support a decision belongs in a report, not on the main screen.

2. The most important number goes first

Every dashboard has one or two numbers that matter more than the rest. Give them the biggest size, the top-left position and the most contrast. Everything else should support them, not compete with them.

3. Group by meaning, keep the layout stable

Put related metrics together and keep each group in the same place every time. People build a mental map of a dashboard quickly. If things move around, that map breaks and every visit starts from zero.

4. Use color for meaning only

Green for up, red for down, one accent for what’s active. When color is used for decoration, it stops working as a signal. Make sure the meaning also comes through without color, for people who don’t see it the same way.

5. Design every state, not just the full one

The perfect screen full of data is the one you see least when you start. Design the empty state for new users, the loading state, errors, and the case where a number is zero or missing. These states decide whether a dashboard feels reliable.

6. Overview first, detail on demand

The main view should answer the big question at a glance. Filters, drill-downs and detail pages are for the next question. Trying to show everything at once is the fastest way to make a dashboard nobody reads.

Designing for a client and designing for your own company use the same skills, but the pressure is different. A few things shift.

• Every hour has a cost. When the budget is your own, you feel the price of every revision, every extra screen and every “nice to have”.
• Scope becomes a design decision. Choosing what not to build is often the most valuable design work there is.
• You see the whole journey. Sales, onboarding, support and renewals are all part of the product experience, not someone else’s problem.
• Design decisions are bets. You make the best call you can with what you know, ship it, and learn from what happens.
• Clarity beats cleverness. A design that’s easy to explain to a customer is usually easier to sell, support and build.

None of this makes design less important. It makes it more honest: good design is the version that solves the real problem within real constraints.

When I design a dashboard or a product now, I start with goals and scope before visuals, and I ask what each screen needs to help someone decide. If you’re planning a dashboard or rethinking a product, my SaaS redesign checklist is a good companion to these principles, and the case studies show them in practice.