Care coordinators often look after a long list of patients at once. The temptation is to show everything; the result is a wall of numbers nobody can read. Density is not the enemy — undirected density is.
Decide what the screen is for
Every dashboard answers a question. For a coordinator starting a shift, it is usually “who needs me first?”. Once that is clear, most of the layout decisions make themselves: sort by urgency, surface the reason, hide the rest one click away.
A dashboard that answers every question answers none of them quickly.
Hierarchy before decoration
- One primary metric per card, everything else secondary.
- Group by the decision it supports, not by data source.
- Align numbers on a shared baseline so the eye can compare.
Quiet defaults
Most values are normal most of the time. Showing them at full contrast trains people to ignore the screen. Mute what is expected, and let change and risk carry the colour.
Progressive detail
Keep the overview scannable and let detail live one level down — a side panel, an expanded row, a hover card. People can go deep when they choose to, without everyone paying the cost all the time.
The result can hold more information than the cluttered version, while feeling lighter to use.
