And now, the end.

"No more dashboards!"

That's what they told me their goal was at this tech company.

They're a data product software company—and while doing some research on the challenges facing their UX team designing compelling data-driven experiences, their primary challenge was to get the team, founders, product heads and sales people to stop thinking that a dashboard is always the answer.

My take?

They're right…but also wrong.

Look, no user who trusts your team and has a job to do with the data you're providing is going to say, "I'll love it so long as you process the data using Spark on the backend."

The same with dashboards.

The problem here isn't that all dashboards are bad - they just might not be the best or only tactical way to express the design.

Absolutely dismissing a tool or tactic like this is saying, "no hammers shall be used in the construction of this home."

If the home is right, nobody will notice or care what tools went into making it.

When you focus on the desired outcome—instead of the output you're creating—it will help enlighten you to other user experiences and interfaces you may not be considering.

If you're doing all this design stuff right, the customer probably won't even comment on "dashboard" or anything else about your UI/UX/product/solution.

The design choices will just disappear.

Photo by Hunter Haley on Unsplash