Designing an effective dashboard is an art and irrespective of the technology used for building the dashboard there are certain rules of thumb which should not be ignored.

Rule 1 – Understand the audience for the dashboard because that will help determine how the dashboard is going to be used and the expected level of interaction.

Rule 2 - Understand the amount and depth of interaction that will be necessary within the dashboard and make recommendations accordingly to the business.

Rule 3 – Always do an analysis on the best technology that should be used to fulfill the business requirements. There still may be instances when your recommendation may differ from customer’s perception of best technology to use for building the dashboard. Especially in scenarios when the customer’s technological environment consists of multiple BI tools.