Observability Practical By Samson Tanimawo, PhD Published Jul 12, 2026 4 min read

The Dashboard Redesign Checklist

Dashboards rot. The 7-point checklist that produces dashboards stakeholders read and on-call uses.

Pick one audience

Engineering on-call vs leadership vs customer-facing teams need different dashboards. Mixing audiences produces unread dashboards.

Each dashboard answers one set of questions for one audience.

The eye lands top-left first. Put the most important metric there. Time series, not single number.

Right side fades to detail. Group panels by question.

If a panel has not been changed in 12 months and is not flagged 'stable,' it is suspect. Verify or retire.

Track dashboard usage. Unviewed dashboards are noise; consolidate.