Dashboards can be effective tools for visualizing data and driving decision-making; however, many dashboards fall short in delivering clear, actionable insights. In this workshop, we will focus on the key design elements that make dashboards both effective and user-friendly. In the first half of this workshop, participants will learn about best practices for layout, visual clarity, and user experience to ensure that their dashboards communicate data effectively. The second half of the workshop will focus on reviewing examples of dashboards in need of improvement. In group discussions, we will analyze dashboards and brainstorm ideas on how to enhance their design, usability, and functionality. Attendees are encouraged to be prepared to share their own dashboards with each other for feedback on how to make them more effective. By the end of the session, participants will leave with practical strategies to design dashboards that are visually engaging, intuitive to use, and capable of delivering meaningful insights to stakeholders.
This session is not software specific, but we will share some design ideas and tips related to some of our favorite visualization tools.
9:30 am: Check-in & networking
10-11 am: Learning session
Presenters:
Amber Lewis is the Principal Evaluator for Kindling Insights, and has been supporting the evaluation efforts of funders, nonprofits, and universities for nearly a decade, serving in both internal and external capacities. She seeks to provide quantitative and qualitative analysis in ways that are engaging, offer actionable insights, and are shaped by the collaboration and voices of diverse partners. She is passionate about making data accessible and empowering clients to ask and answer questions that meaningfully affect and improve their work. Amber currently serves on the EASL Board.
Tom Withee is the Owner / Principal Researcher for Fulcrum DataViz that supports school districts, colleges and universities, not-for-profit organizations and informal education entities with evaluation, research and data visualization services. Tom has been a program evaluator and education researcher since 2019 where he has developed expertise as a data thought partner for organizations by helping them understand what data they already have, what data they could/should use, how to interpret that data and how to communicate effectively with their data. Tom has presented on developing and designing interactive data dashboards for several local evaluation affiliates including EASL, H-PEA, IEA and Seattle; at multiple AEA conferences, and for organizations. He is passionate about making STEM education accessible to all students as is evidenced by the projects he supports.
