Chapter 1: Defining your Board's content

Let’s dive into the method to effectively define your Board content, how to choose which information to display and when!

Define users & objectives

The very first step of designing a Board is to define what you need to create. Who will use this Board? What will they be using it for? Which actions should they take? Which information should they see?

Each user logs in to Pigment with a specific goal in mind:

• As a business unit manager, I want to review my OPEX

• As a CFO, I want to compare actuals vs forecast,

• As an FP&A analyst, I want to track the latest expenses

By defining all those user stories beforehand, this helps validate that the user can achieve their objectives with the final design.

Think in terms of flows and journeys

With the user and objectives in mind, select your first user story and write down all the steps that a user will go through from the moment they land on Pigment to the moment they achieve their goal.

For example, take a business manager reviewing their budget. Where should they land when they log in? Which selectors should they click to filter their data?

Don’t be afraid to be very granular. This will help you figure out which instructions and information need to be shown and at which point.

Imagine a conversation

Writing content on a Board is very similar to writing a conversation between the user and the software. Imagine a world where Pigment doesn’t exist and the person is directly talking to you, asking you questions to resolve their objectives.

What would they ask? In which order? Which pitfalls do they risk falling into?

Try to anticipate as much as possible all potential outcomes. That will help you define the exact content that needs to be written and to make your flow bulletproof.

Organise it in a document, then in a wireframe, then on your Board

Don’t be afraid to start writing a Board script directly on a Word document. This helps you in two ways. Firstly, you can create the outline and skeleton of your Board without focusing too much on the little details. Secondly, you can nail down and validate the whole structure and create a strong hierarchy.

Once this step done, you can move to a higher level of fidelity. Draw your Boards with rectangles on a wireframe to validate your information structure. You can then eventually start building it out in Pigment.

Starting with very low-fidelity drawings helps you test different ideas quickly, test them and finally build the best ones.

Next up

Learn the four principles of good visual design