Which option best describes dashboard design for decision support?

• A. Focus on all measures equally.
• B. Use 3D graphs to enhance visuals.
• C. Focus on high-impact measures, clear visuals, include context and targets, ensure data accuracy, and provide drill-down capability.
• D. Exclude data sources from the display.

Answer: (C)

Designing dashboards for decision support is about surfacing the most influential information in a way that’s quick to read and easy to act on, while still letting you drill down when needed. The best approach emphasizes high-impact measures rather than trying to display everything, uses clear visuals that minimize confusion, and provides context such as past performance, benchmarks, and explicit targets so you can judge current status at a glance. It also ensures data accuracy and timeliness so decisions are based on trustworthy information, and includes drill-down capability to explore underlying data or view it by dimension (like department or time period) when deeper investigation is required.

Focusing on all measures equally can overwhelm the viewer, making it hard to discern what matters most. 3D graphs often distort perception and hinder accurate comparisons. Excluding data sources undermines trust and makes it hard to verify the information.