Designing an admin screen nobody has to learn

Most analytics interfaces are built for people who use them every day. Most people using analytics open them once a month, at the end of the month, in a hurry.

That changes what good looks like. Defaults matter more than options. The first screen should answer the question people actually arrive with, which is almost always “is it going up or down”.

We keep coming back to three rules. Put the number and its comparison together, because a number on its own is not information. Say what a figure is an estimate of, on the screen, not in the documentation. And do not invent a second navigation inside a page when the application already has one.

The measure of success is unglamorous. Nobody writes to say the reporting screen is beautiful. They stop writing to ask where things are.