Visual design and layout for Grafana dashboards — panel hierarchy, type selection,
color/threshold design, and iterative screenshot-based refinement.
Use when: (1) Deciding what panels belong on a new dashboard, (2) Choosing panel
types for specific data patterns, (3) Structuring visual hierarchy and layout,
(4) Applying color and thresholds to communicate status, (5) Reviewing dashboard
appearance via Playwright screenshots, (6) Iterating on readability and density
Triggers: "dashboard design", "visual design", "layout design", "panel type",
"color scheme", "screenshot review", "iterate dashboard", "dashboard looks",
"visual feedback", "refine dashboard", "dashboard hierarchy", "information density"
Visual design and layout for Grafana dashboards — panel hierarchy, type selection,
color/threshold design, and iterative screenshot-based refinement.
Use when: (1) Deciding what panels belong on a new dashboard, (2) Choosing panel
types for specific data patterns, (3) Structuring visual hierarchy and layout,
(4) Applying color and thresholds to communicate status, (5) Reviewing dashboard
appearance via Playwright screenshots, (6) Iterating on readability and density
Triggers: "dashboard design", "visual design", "layout design", "panel type",
"color scheme", "screenshot review", "iterate dashboard", "dashboard looks",
"visual feedback", "refine dashboard", "dashboard hierarchy", "information density"
user-invocable
false
Dashboard Design
Design judgment for Grafana dashboards — what to build and how it should look.
For authoring mechanics (MCP workflow, JSON templates, ConfigMap), see the
grafana-dashboards skill.
For alert and ServiceMonitor authoring, see monitoring-authoring.
Design Workflow
Define purpose → Layout hierarchy → Select panel types → Apply color/thresholds
→ Push via MCP → Screenshot review → Iterate → Hand off to grafana-dashboards
Step 1: Define Dashboard Purpose
One dashboard = one question it answers. Examples:
"Is the platform healthy right now?" → Platform Home
"Why is latency elevated?" → Service-level signals
"How full is storage?" → Storage capacity
If you can't state the question in one sentence, split into multiple dashboards.
Step 2: Layout Hierarchy
Structure rows top-to-bottom by audience urgency (Z-pattern reading flow):
Row Position
Content
Panel Type
Hero (top)
Availability, error rate, SLO status
Stat (w:6, 3-4 panels)
Supporting
Latency/throughput trends, saturation
Timeseries (w:12 or w:24)
Detail
Per-resource breakdown, logs correlation
Table, Bar Gauge
Debug (bottom)
Raw counters, cardinality, internal stats
Collapsed rows
Grid widths (24-column grid):
4 stats per row: w:6 at x: 0, 6, 12, 18
3 panels per row: w:8 at x: 0, 8, 16
6 compact stats: w:4 at x: 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20
Full-width: w:24
Step 3: Panel Type Selection
Data Pattern
Use
Why
Single current value
Stat
Instant read + threshold color
Trend over time
Timeseries
Shows rate/pattern changes
% of bounded range
Gauge
Circular fill = intuitive utilization
Multiple resources
Table
Scannable multi-row comparison
Categorical compare
Bar Gauge
Side-by-side without time axis
Binary state (0/1)
Stat + value mapping
Maps 0→"DOWN"/red, 1→"UP"/green
Stat panels dominate this codebase (54 stat : 42 timeseries : 18 gauge). Default to
stat for KPIs, timeseries for anything with meaningful time shape.
Step 4: Color & Threshold Design
Two threshold modes — pick based on which direction is bad:
Check for: crowded rows, inconsistent threshold colors, missing panel titles,
axes without units, buried golden signals.
Anti-Patterns
Mistake
Impact
Fix
Golden signals buried below fold
Missed during incidents
Move availability/error rate to hero row
All panels same size/weight
No hierarchy, eye wanders
Hero stats larger; detail rows compact
>6 panels per row
Unreadable on standard displays
Max 4 normal stats, 6 compact
Missing threshold steps
No visual status signal
Every stat and gauge needs thresholds
Decorative panels (icons, banners)
Noise, no decision value
Remove anything that doesn't drive action
One dashboard for everything
Cognitive overload
Split by audience/question
Static thresholds for traffic-sensitive metrics
Alert fatigue
Note context in panel description
Keywords
visual design, dashboard layout, panel hierarchy, information architecture, panel type
selection, color semantics, thresholds, Z-pattern, golden signals, SLO, screenshot review,
iterative design, Playwright, visual feedback, information density, stat panel, timeseries,
gauge, table, bar gauge, value mapping, color conventions, grid layout