Crafting Your Data: A road map to tailored dashboard background.

Data analysis and understanding the chart have always engaged me from the core.

The deeper you delve into data, the more it reveals intricate insights, offering a comprehensive narrative that informs decisions and drives meaningful actions.

From the day I have started learning about data analysis , I have been passionate about how to make my dashboard insightful and at the same time visually appealing and that’s when I started exploring ways to implement it.

Creating an attractive dashboard background enhances user engagement by providing a visually appealing interface, fostering a positive user experience and facilitating intuitive navigation.

 I thoroughly enjoyed the process of learning about the customizing the background .

Though there are may different ways to do it, I  would like to share one of those.

We will be using power point to create the background which can be used in many visualization including excel, power bi, tableau etc.

Let start understanding the process,

 Step 1:

First step is to create a rough layout of how we are planning to make our dashboard layout. This will take multiple attempts before finalizing the layout which represents the sequential placement of our chart based on our requirements.  I would prefer it with a traditional pen and paper method.

Step 2:

Next step is to choose a layout in ppt.

This can be done by going to the Design Tab and under Slide Size we can opt for the size. I have used 16:9 widescreen for this.

Step 3:

The next step is to make the slide clean by deleting the elements already present. This can be done by selecting the element and deleting it.

Select the element ->Backspace.

Step 4:

The next step is to import the background image which we are trying to use. This can be done by

Insert Tab -> Pictures -> This Device -> Select the location of the picture.

Make sure the picture doesn't go beyond the slide space as it wont be saved.

Step 5:

Next step is to adjust the transparency of the background image. This can be done by

Right click -> Format Picture -> click on the picture icon

Now we will add all the element over here.

Step 6:

Now we will insert a rectangular shape on top of our image.

This can be done by

Insert -> Shapes -> select rectangle.

Make sure to cover the image leaving some space from the sides.

Now Go to Shape Format -> Align ->Align center -> Align Middle

This will let the rectangular shape to align perfectly into our slide.

Now comes the important part of breaking the slides into small containers according to the planned rough layout.

Step 7:

Now comes the little bit tricky part.

We have divide our base according to our requirement using the guidelines.

Right click outside of the slide -> Select Gride and Guidelines -> Select Horizontal and vertical guidelines according to the requirement.

Make sure to align the guidelines according to the planned layout. This is going to help us to prepare the containers.

The guidelines can be moved right and left by dragging and placing in the required location.

This needs lot of attentions and patience.

Step 8:

Now we have to break our slides. For this we have to use the shape and break it.

Go to Insert -> Select shape -> Rectangle

Make sure cover the rectangle aligning with the gridlines we have done earlier. The vertical rectangle can be done by rotating it with the rotation shape.

Step 9:

Now come the formatting part of the grid rectangles we placed now.

In order to distinguish it from other rectangles we can change the color  through SHAPE FILL option in the Shape format Tab and the width according to the layout.

I have Selected the color green and the width of 0.25cm.

Step 10.

We are almost there!!

 Now select the blue rectangular shape and now ctrl and select all the green rectangles that we have just created. Select everything together.

Now got to Shape Format -> Merge Shapes ->Subtract

Now delete all the gridlines we have in the sheet by right clicking outside the slide and delete.

Step 12:

Now come the formatting part.

Right click click on the format shapes. This will take you to the formatting page where you can play around to get the desired effect on your background. You can select the color according to the requirement and the gradient stops can be managed by deleting any extra stop if required.

The Angle defines the angle of gradient and transparency decides the transparency level.

We are done with generating our background .

Now it is time to use this in our dashboard.

I will be using it in tableau to demonstrate.

Step 1:

Save the slide in the desired location for use in the JPEG format.

Step 2:

Once you are ready with the chart for the dashboard, start preparing the dashboard.

Step3:

After you are done with the dashboard size, drag image to the dashboard.

Now we have the background ready . We can start pulling our chart inside in the floating option and arrange accordingly.

Now we are ready with a beautiful dashboard with a customized background .

Implementing these strategies can elevate your presentation effort.

Thank you for exploring this.

Hopefully this was helpful.