Data Shouldn’t Be Ugly: Why Every Business Needs a Design System for Reporting

Why Every Business Needs a Design System for Reporting

Let’s get one thing straight: most dashboards have the appeal of old bread.

They’re cluttered, inconsistent, and bloated with 37 different chart types nobody asked for. The colors look like they were chosen by a golden retriever with a paintbrush in its mouth. The font sizes are off. Metrics are buried. And somewhere, deep in the heart of the organization, a lonely business analyst cries into their Excel spreadsheet.

This isn’t just bad design. It’s bad business.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it shouldn’t be this way.

If you’re serious about making data-informed decisions, and I’m talking real decisions, the kind that move revenue, reduce churn, and make people trust your insights...you need a Design System for Reporting. Especially if you're knee-deep in Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI, or all three.

This isn’t about pixel pushing. It’s about changing the way your company thinks about data.

The Unsexy Truth About Most Dashboards

Here’s the truth nobody talks about: most BI tools weren’t designed with humans in mind. They were built for engineers. Query builders. Data wonks.

And so we ended up with a generation of dashboards that look like a Windows 95 admin panel and function like a Swiss army knife missing its blade.

But your users? They’re not data scientists. They’re executives. Product managers. Ops leads. People who want answers in under 10 seconds, not a puzzle to decode.

When there’s no design system, every report becomes an improvisational jazz session with no key and no tempo. One dashboard uses purple pie charts and drop shadows. The next goes full monochrome with 11 different font sizes and a 3D scatterplot nobody understands.

This chaos erodes trust. Friction is everywhere.

If your users don’t trust what they see, they won’t use it. If they don’t use it, the whole point of your data stack falls apart. They go rogue, they make there own, that is got wrong data...it is all a nightmare. We have all seen it.

What Is a Design System for Reporting, Really?

Let's keep it simple. Think of it as a style guide for your brain.

Just like UI/UX design systems define components, spacing, grids, and voice for apps and websites, a Reporting Design System does the same for dashboards, data stories, and embedded analytics.

It's the operating system behind the scenes. It ensures that your dashboards:

• Speak the same visual language

• Highlight what matters

• Respect the user’s time

• Reinforce brand identity

• Drive consistent, confident decision-making

It’s not “make it pretty.” It’s “make it work.”

Chris Do would call this: “Design as a business decision.” And he'd be right.

Let’s Talk Benefits: The Kind That Make CFOs Smile

Let’s not sugarcoat it. This is about ROI.

You’re not doing this because you’re bored. You’re doing this because it gets results. Here’s what you can expect:

1. Faster Time to Insight

Pre-built components, templates, and logic frameworks mean you’re not reinventing the wheel every time someone wants a bar chart.

→ Teams report up to 50% faster turnaround times on reports and dashboards.

2. Consistency = Trust

When your dashboards look and feel the same across departments, trust skyrockets. People stop questioning how the data is presented and start focusing on what the data is telling them.

→ A Harvard Business Review study found consistent UX increases enterprise adoption of analytics tools by 23%.

3. Lower Cost of Ownership

A standardized system reduces rework, support tickets, and dashboard sprawl.

→ Companies report 30-40% reduction in BI support requests after implementing a design system.

4. Easier Training & Onboarding

Train once, use everywhere. Your sales ops team and your marketing analysts are finally playing the same game.

→ New employees ramp up 2x faster on reporting platforms when design systems are in place.

The end result the CFO is happy, yeah....we all get to keep our jobs.

So How Do You Build One?

This isn’t a plug-and-play operation. It’s a deliberate, strategic process. Here’s how the sausage gets made:

1. Discovery: The Reckoning

Start by auditing your current reports and dashboards. Be ruthless.

• What tools are you using? (Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI, Domo, Looker…)

• Who’s creating reports?

• How many reports are live?

• Which ones actually get used?

This is where the skeletons come out. You’ll find unused dashboards that haven’t been touched in 2 years. And reports that contradict each other. Good. You’re here to clean house.

2. Foundation Design: Your Visual Constitution

Define the basics:

• Typography hierarchy

• Color palettes (ADA compliant, brand-aligned)

• Grid systems and spacing rules

• Data visualization standards (when to use bar vs. line, etc.)

• Iconography and navigation controls

You’ll want to reference accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1), UX heuristics, and real-world use cases. Make it beautiful, but keep it functional.

3. Component Library: Your Reporting LEGO Set....you all know I love LEGO

Break your dashboards into repeatable components:

• KPI Cards

• Header & Subheader Zones

• Date Filters

• Navigation Menus

• Microcharts

• Tables, Matrices, Scorecards

Then build templates. These become your team’s new building blocks. Just like reusable React components in product design.

4. Governance & Naming Conventions

You need order. Chaos is easy. Governance takes guts.

• Enforce naming conventions for fields, dimensions, measures

• Create version control for dashboard releases

• Publish internal documentation (Notion, Confluence, SharePoint)

• Assign owners and establish review cycles

This is where most companies skip ahead. Don’t. Governance is your insurance policy.

5. Training & Enablement

Build a toolkit that scales:

• Internal playbooks

• Recorded walk-throughs

• “How to Build a Compliant Dashboard” templates

• Live training sessions

Get buy-in. Make it cool. Make it fun. This isn’t a lecture. It’s a culture shift.

6. Pilot Program + Feedback Loop

Launch the design system with one or two departments. Measure success. Iterate like hell.

Build feedback loops directly into your system. Make improvements public. Celebrate wins.

What a Typical Project Looks Like

Discovery & Audit Weeks 1–2 Report inventory, pain points, usage data

Foundation Design Weeks 3–4 Style guide, design rules, accessibility

Component Build Weeks 5–6 Templates, charts, filters, UI elements

Governance & Docs Week 7 Naming conventions, documentation hub

Training & Enablement Weeks 8–9 Training decks, recorded guides, playbooks

Pilot & Rollout Weeks 10–12 Live dashboards, feedback, final tweaks

Final Thoughts: Don’t Be That Company

You don’t need more dashboards.

You need better dashboards.

If you’re investing millions into your data stack but leaving design to chance, you’re wasting time and pissing off your end users.

A Design System for Reporting is a power move. It’s a declaration that you give a damn about how your data is used. It’s the difference between a janky food truck menu and a Michelin-starred experience.

Design is not decoration. It’s strategy.

So the question is: Are you ready to cook with fire? Or are you still microwaving leftovers?

Author: Scott Ellis is a design systems expert, UX strategist, and founder of Digital MacGyver. He helps companies build the systems that drive decision-making and deliver results.

🧠 Want help building a Reporting Design System? Let’s talk.

Article also posted on LinkedIn