Dr Data Insight - M3: Visual Best Practice and NHS Dashboards

Welcome

M1: Getting Started Tableau

M2: Filters, Parameters and Drill Down

M3: Visual Best Practice and NHS Dashboards

M4: Calculated Fields & Data Blending

M5: Presenting Dashboards & Interview Delivery

Module 3: Visual Best Practices

In healthcare, clarity is everything—especially when presenting data to busy clinical, operational, and executive teams. This module focuses on visual best practices and how to design dashboards that not only look professional but communicate insights quickly and effectively. You’ll learn key principles of visual design—such as choosing the right chart type, using colour with purpose, and avoiding cognitive overload—based on proven data storytelling techniques. You’ll also explore examples of NHS-style dashboards, including referral-to-treatment (RTT) performance, A&E attendance trends, and workforce metrics, with guidance on how to tailor your design for healthcare audiences. By the end of this module, you’ll be equipped to build clear, engaging, and actionable dashboards that support better decision-making across the NHS and wider healthcare systems.

Module 3: Visual Best Practice and NHS Dashboards - 3.1

Designing for Clarity, Credibility, and Impact

In Tableau, it’s easy to build charts—but building meaningful visuals takes more than just dragging and dropping. This module teaches you how to apply visual best practices grounded in cognitive science, design thinking, and real-world storytelling. Because how you show the data is just as important as what the data says.

🔍 Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

Choose the right chart type for the right data and question
Apply design principles to enhance clarity and engagement
Use color, size, and labels to guide attention—not distract
Avoid common visualization pitfalls
Design with your audience’s needs in mind

🧭 Lesson Breakdown

3.1 Why Visual Best Practices Matter

The human brain processes visuals faster than text
Bad charts = lost trust, miscommunication, or worse: bad decisions
Overview of pre-attentive attributes: color, size, position, form
The three pillars of effective dashboards: clarity, context, and consistency

💬 “Good data doesn’t speak for itself. It needs a translator—you.”

3.2 Choosing the Right Chart Type

Bar charts: comparisons and rankings
Line charts: trends over time
Pie charts: when to use (and when not to)
Maps: geographic data visualization
Scatter plots: correlation and outliers
Bullet charts, heatmaps, and KPIs
Hands-on: Match business questions to appropriate chart types

3.3 Using Color, Size, and Shape Effectively

Color for categorization vs. intensity for magnitude
Avoiding red-green confusion and accessibility issues
Using size and shape for emphasis, not clutter
Tableau color palettes and when to customize
Hands-on: Redesign a cluttered dashboard using best practices

3.4 Labeling and Tooltips

When to use labels—and when to let tooltips do the work
Keeping labels readable and purposeful
Designing smart, informative tooltips
Hands-on: Build a sales dashboard with customized tooltips and selective labels

3.5 Layout and Flow

Strategic use of white space and grouping
Visual hierarchy: top-left to bottom-right scanning
Designing for different screen sizes
Using containers and spacing for consistency
Hands-on: Restructure a dashboard for maximum readability

3.6 Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Chartjunk: gradients, shadows, and unnecessary icons
Misleading axes and distorted proportions
Overusing interactivity (when everything is clickable, nothing is useful)
Overloading with too many metrics or charts
Simplicity = authority

Module 3: Visual Best Practice and NHS Dashboards - 3.2

🧠 Knowledge Check

Visual analysis quiz: Spot the problem in five dashboards
Design challenge: Redesign a poorly structured dashboard using best practices
Reflection prompt: “How do you balance creativity with clarity in dashboard design?”

📌 Key Takeaways

The right chart tells the story without saying a word
Visual best practices increase trust, clarity, and impact
Simplicity, structure, and strategic use of color are key to effective dashboards
Design with empathy: Always ask, “What does my audience need from this?”

🎓 What’s Next?

Now that you’ve mastered visual storytelling, we’ll dive into calculated fields, table calculations, and data blending in Module 4. This is where logic meets creativity—and Tableau becomes a true analytical powerhouse.

Visual Best Practices Quiz

Disclaimer: The videos included have been thoughtfully selected to support and enrich the learning experience. While not essential to the completion of the course, they offer valuable insights that may deepen your understanding of the module content. Dr Data Insights does not claim authorship or involvement in the creation of these tutorials.