# Plan your dashboard

Before you start building your dashboard, think about the content and design of your dashboard. Dashboards represent business visualization of data and should therefore be driven by business requirements, not technical aspects.

## Gather requirements

When gathering requirements, consider the following.

* How should data be prioritized in your dashboard? For example, analysts generally prefer to navigate from aggregated data to complex breakdowns.
* How will users navigate your dashboard? Consider the role of dashboard parameters. For example, are your dimensional selectors independent, nested, or categorized?
* What is the look and feel of the dashboard? The dashboard should aim to incorporate the customer's own corporate or department identity and guidelines.

## Design your dashboard

It is time to grab a piece of paper and sketch your dashboard!

When designing your dashboard, you may have the following considerations regarding layout:

* Main header
* Main content
* Secondary content
* Location of dashboard parameters
* Categorization of information
* Left-to-right and top-to-bottom layouts

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