What is a good way to position chart elements on a dashboard?

Question

I'm designing some dashboards for a client who will see sliced and diced versions of data based on a lot of parameters.

I plan to give him a Pie Chart, Bar Graph and a Table on the same dashboard.

I want to know what should be the ideal positioning of these three.

The standard layout which my previous team member has used is

PIE | Table _|____

BAR GRAPH

Is this a good layout?

Answer 1

The layout should be based on the information the charts show, and not on what type of chart it is (pie, bar, etc.).

Make the more important information more prominent and in an area that is likely to be seen first. For most areas of the world, that will be the top right down in a Z-pattern.

But at the same time, you should group related charts or data together if they will likely be used together.

There is no "right way" to do this. It's an art and takes a judgement call. However, you should speak to your customers and test whatever layouts you go for with them.

Answer 2

Take everything mentioned by @JohnGB into consideration, but also note that Tables typically take up more horizontal space and that pie charts often require a square container. In my experience with mixing chart and table data, the ideal layout looks like this for the requirements as provided:

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