/data-dashboard

name: data-dashboard
description: 'Build a dense, data-heavy screen - an analytics console or a trading terminal - with real charts drawn from tokens: candlestick, volume, depth, stacked area, waterfall, scatter, correlation matrix, donut, gauge, sparklines, heatmaps and order books. Use when the request is a dashboard, terminal, monitoring view, data console, or any screen whose job is to show many numbers at once. Covers the layout sequence, the SVG geometry, the accessibility contract per chart type, and the contrast traps that only appear in dark mode.'

Skill: Data dashboard

Requirements

This skill needs the full UX/UI Agent Skills kit: the gates, the references and the design-system library. Install it with `npx ux-ui-agent-skills@3.1.0 init` or as the Claude Code plugin. `npx skills@1.7.6 add` copies the skill folder and nothing else. Installed that way, this skill runs in **guidance-only mode**: no gate runs, so it gives no verdict.

> **Step 0: is the kit here?** Check once: > `ls ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../../tokens >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo KIT_OK || echo KIT_MISSING` > On `KIT_MISSING`, open your reply with: "Guidance-only mode: the UX/UI Agent > Skills kit is not installed here, so no gate ran and nothing below is > measured." Then work from this file and general practice, under three rules. > Do not guess or cite the contents of a kit file you could not open. State no > measured number (no contrast ratio, no N/N, no "passes WCAG"): write "not > verified" where one would go. End with a line `Skipped (kit not installed):` > that names every gate script this file tells you to run, then the install > command above.

A dashboard is the hardest screen to keep honest: it is dense, it is mostly non-text, and almost every default makes it worse. This is the recipe that produced `${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../../examples/showcase/` and `${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../../examples/terminal/`, both of which pass every gate in both themes.

1. Decide the brief before drawing anything

Answer these in one line each, or `/grill-me` them out of the user:

• **Who reads this, and what decision do they make from it?** A revenue console

for an operator and a trading desk for a dealer look nothing alike.

• **What is the one number that leads?** A dashboard without a lead is a wall.
• **What is the update cadence?** Hourly figures get a "last run" line. Live

figures get a tape and a timestamp per row.

• **How dense is honest?** A terminal earns 12 panels. A weekly report does not.

2. Layout sequence, not a grid of equal cards

Four equal stat cards is the single loudest tell that nobody designed this. Compose in bands, each a different shape:

| Band | Content | Why | |---|---|---| | 1 | Hero metric at 3x body size + its own chart, spanning most of the width | The eye lands once | | 2 | Two or three secondary figures, stacked or narrow | Quiet by construction | | 3 | Three **different** chart shapes side by side (donut, ranked bars, sparklines) | Variety reads as intent | | 4 | A table that really sorts, plus a feed or log | Detail after summary | | 5 | A footer line that ends the page | A page must end on purpose |

Use a 12-column grid with explicit spans (`span 8` / `span 4`), collapsing to 6 then 1. Never `repeat(auto-fit, …)` for the primary bands - it produces exactly the equal-card wall you are avoiding.

3. The chart inventory

All of these are plain inline SVG with `viewBox`, sized by CSS, filled from `--color-chart-*`. No chart library, no runtime dependency.

| Chart | Geometry | Use it for | |---|---|---| | Bar / column | `<rect>` per bucket, `rx` for a soft corner | Discrete periods | | Candlestick | `<line>` wick + `<rect>` body per period, class by up/down | OHLC price | | Volume | Bars under the price chart, same x-scale, `opacity:.45` | Conviction behind a move | | Moving average | `<polyline>` over the candles, 2px, round joins | Trend through noise | | Line / sparkline | `<polyline>`, `pathLength="1"` for a draw animation | Trend in a cell | | Area / stacked area | `<path>` per band: forward along the top, **reverse along the previous baseline**, close | Composition over time | | Depth | Two cumulative area paths mirrored around the mid | Book liquidity | | Waterfall | Floating `<rect>` per step + dashed connectors between levels | Attribution | | Donut | `<circle>` with `stroke-dasharray` and `rotate()` per segment | Share of a whole, 3-5 slices | | Radial gauge | Same trick, `stroke-linecap:round`, 270-degree sweep | One value against a limit | | Scatter / bubble | `<circle>`, radius = third dimension | Two measures plus weight | | Correlation matrix | HTML table, cell tint via `color-mix` | Pairwise relationships | | Heatmap | HTML table or `<rect>` grid, tint by value | Cohorts, calendars | | Order book | HTML table with a depth bar per row | Bids and asks |

**Generate the geometry, do not hand-place it.** Write a small deterministic script (a seeded walk) that emits the SVG elements, then paste the output in. Hand-typed coordinates drift and cannot be regenerated.

4. Domain correctness is part of craft

Gates cannot catch a chart that is drawn beautifully and means nothing. Check by hand:

• A **correlation matrix is symmetric** and its diagonal is exactly 1. Random

values in both triangles is an instant tell to anyone who reads one for a living.

• A **stacked area** sums to the total; bands must not cross or leave gaps. The

usual bug is reversing the baseline by index instead of by coordinate, which shows as dark wedges between bands.

• A **waterfall** needs connectors, and the closing bar must equal opening plus

the steps.

• **Depth** rises away from the mid on both sides; it never falls.
• A **donut** whose segments do not total the whole is a pie chart lying.

5. Accessibility contract, per chart

• Every SVG gets `role="img"` plus either `aria-label` or `<title>`+`<desc>`

referenced by `aria-labelledby`. Say what the chart **shows**