Hi,
Any tips on how to make this dashboard with 2 legends (one relates to the pie chart, one relates to the bar chart) look a bit nicer?
Thanks,
Claudia
2 legends in one dashboard
I would start by making them go more horizontal:
Batteries Food Waste Mixed Recycle
Food Wood
get less rows and less height (more columns) used for the area you are using (less unused space)
the one on the left might even be able to have four columns, defiantly three
I would agree with James, horizontal for the pie chart will definitely look better.
We generally put the legend below the chart in the same frame so I would have the pie chart legend going across the bottom of the left frame.
I think that the right hand one would look better as one vertical column alongside the chart but the chart would have to be narrower which might not be what you want. Maybe horizontally underneath it too, but the justification on the right margin, and the number of items on each row will take some tinkering.
I agree with David below is better.
What about giving each of these it own Layer and a switch between the two? then you have room for the bar chart to have the legend on the side (put the legend on the bottom for pie).
second look, on the pie chart try having the labels not only show the percent but what it is. use the force to outside on that. then no need for a legend on the pie chart at all.
I agree with James and David, make both legends horizontal, and put them below the graphs.
I would also center align content in each and consider changing the color palette used on one of the visualizations and it’s legend. When I see graphs that have the same colors next to each my brain immediately wants to same-colored data related.
One other unsolicited suggestion would be to use stacked area instead of the pie chart and show the collections by % over time. You could also flip the vertical bars to horizontal if you did that to align more along the horizontal access.
1 Like
I don’t disagree with the recommendations so far, I thought I’d share how I did a similar problem. I only allowed one Dundas legend to come through to the dashboard for my two charts. Chart colors are locked to the hierarchies, so the colors of the pie chart, legend, line chart, and buttons on bottom consistently represent the relationship of the data… 
My solution was to create my own legend (the dumb buttons at the bottom of the dashboard). The table could have colors, but at that point, I’m thinking the viewer gets what they’re viewing. Let me also point out the color choice for the chart was the user, not me.
2 Likes
Yes, sometimes the old ‘rectangles and labels’ route is the way to go when the legend doesn’t quite do what you want.
Love the unique approach @steve.glaeser! Sometimes a solid answer is to just think outside of box and do something that isn’t the default. (You’d be shocked how many Dundas users simply use the defaults for everything)
If you really want to increase the visual appeal you could even go as far as adding icons to the colours to help give context to the colours…
From above, i love the emotional connection that the icons give to each of the rectangles on top of just a title; how about a hybrid option? Don’t have a graphics artist for this? There are plenty of free sites that offer free stock images and it takes zero skill to make them black or white with a free tool like paint.net.
I’ve skimmed over some of the suggestions so far, so I apologize if this one has already been mentioned and I didn’t see it. I would perhaps move the charts to be vertical (pie chart first I would presume, with the bar chart underneath it). Then, to the right or left of the applicable charts, you could list the legend (and keep them vertical this way if that was a preference of yours) - and dont use a line to separate – keep the chart and legend together in a single area. so its easy to tell which legend goes with which chart. Finally, the pie chart may be big enough to even have the datapoint labels show rather than having a legend at all… if this is the case, thats what I would normally choose to do rather than having legend separate – it keeps ones focus on the chart at all times. Hope any of this helps.