How to Design Impactful Large‑Screen Data Dashboards: Key Principles & Tips

What Is a Large Screen?

Large‑screen displays are an effective way to share, communicate, and disseminate information, evolving into a new media form that plays a crucial role in brand promotion, government reception, business communication, and data monitoring.

There are three common types of large‑screen designs:

Interactive touch screens used in teaching courses or presentation venues, where users combine interaction with content explanation.

Dedicated large screens for specific events such as product launches or shopping festivals, integrating music, scenes, effects, and lighting for a striking, customized experience.

Enterprise visual data dashboards that emphasize strong data‑display capabilities with common charts (bar, pie, etc.) to help users quickly grasp business insights.

Data Screen vs. Data Report

Data reports are typically used by analysts to provide detailed analysis for decision‑makers, while large‑screen dashboards target a broader audience across the entire organization.

Key differences include:

User scope: Reports serve analysts and executives; dashboards are viewable by all employees.

Interaction: Reports require interactive filtering and drilling; dashboards convey information visually without interaction.

Time focus: Reports may cover historical periods; dashboards display real‑time data.

Display emphasis: Reports aim for precision and completeness, often at the cost of visual clarity; dashboards prioritize visual impact and quick comprehension.

The Process of Creating a Large Screen

1. Extract Information

Analyze the data, draw conclusions, and identify the core message the client wants the audience to retain. Ask two critical questions: (1) If the screen could show only one piece of information, what would it be? (2) Why is this information important?

2. Choose Charts

After defining the key message, select chart types that best represent the data relationships. Resources such as AntV’s “Mo‑Zhe Academy” categorize data relationships into nine groups to guide chart selection.

3. Produce Charts

Chart creation involves two layers:

Non‑data layer: Visual elements not driven by data (background, gridlines, borders). Hide or weaken these to avoid visual clutter.

Data layer: Elements directly reflecting data (bar lengths, colors, bubble sizes). Adjust these to improve readability.

Key techniques include:

Hide unnecessary backgrounds and colors.

Weaken or hide axis lines and gridlines.

Truncate extreme values to keep bar lengths comparable.

Allow axes to start above zero when it clarifies trends (avoid exaggeration).

For pie charts, limit categories to 5‑7, grouping the rest as “Other”.

When many bars exist, keep only the top‑five and bottom‑five items.

Highlight important data points with visual emphasis (bold numbers, color contrast).

Reduce or eliminate legends; label key items directly.

Conclusion

Effective large‑screen design hinges on emphasizing key charts when the screen is full‑width and highlighting key data when a single chart is shown. Designers should also consider overall style, custom controls (timers, rotating messages), layout adaptability for different screen sizes, readability after deployment, and appropriate motion effects.

For further exploration of the platform, search for “NetEase YouShu”.

References:

“Excel图表之道” – Liu Wanxiang

“可视化沟通” – Randy Krum