From data to decisions: Improve your dashboards with data storytelling

Dashboards are a key tool for decision-making in business, finance, and analytics, but many dashboards fail to clearly communicate insights or support meaningful action. This course brings together data accuracy and storytelling into well-built dashboards, following design principles to make them accessible and engaging.  

What the course is about 

This beginner-friendly course introduces the fundamentals of data storytelling applied to dashboards. Participants will explore how to choose effective chart types, improve clarity and accessibility, and structure dashboards to guide attention and communicate insights. Each concept is illustrated through real-world case studies and reinforced through hands-on exercises, culminating in the improvement of a real dashboard. 

Who should attend 

The course is designed for business professionals, analysts, and teams working with data in tools such as Tableau, Power BI, or similar platforms. It is suitable for participants who already create or use dashboards and want to improve how insights are communicated, without requiring a design background. 

What you will gain 

By the end of the course, participants will be able to: 

• Turn analytical outputs into clear, decision-oriented dashboard stories 
• Choose and refine charts based on the message and audience 
• Improve readability, accessibility, and visual hierarchy in dashboards 
• Apply practical storytelling principles to existing and future dashboards 

Participants will leave with an improved dashboard and a set of practical guidelines they can immediately apply in their daily work. 

• Fundamentals of data visualization 
• Choosing effective chart types 
• Improving clarity and visual hierarchy 
• Using design elements effectively 
• Accessibility best practices in dashboards 
• Data Storytelling principles 
• Learning from real-world dashboard case studies 
• Hands-on improvement of a real dashboard 

On completion of this course, participants will be able to : 

• Analyse dashboards to identify clarity, storytelling, and usability issues in a business context 
• Select appropriate chart types based on the data, message, and decision-making goal 
• Apply data storytelling principles to structure dashboards and guide user attention 
• Improve dashboard readability and accessibility through effective use of labels, colour, hierarchy, and text 
• Refine an existing dashboard to communicate insights more clearly and support decision-making 

The course adopts a practical, learner-centred approach, combining short theoretical inputs with real-world examples and hands-on activities. Participants actively engage through discussions, individual and small-group work, and direct practice in their preferred dashboard tool. They will develop practical skills to improve clarity, accessibility, and impact in dashboards and will be able to apply storytelling principles to their own work. 

Course materials include curated case studies, practical guidelines, and exercise templates. Participants leave with an improved dashboard (their own or a provided case) and a set of reusable best practices they can apply to future projects.