When designing visuals, align them with the question tree hierarchies. The first and most visible visual should answer the starting point question. The follow-up questions should be addressed in the same visual, if possible, but less prominently. If this is too unwieldy, then the follow-up should be a simple click away for a user to answer his question. The same is applicable with the follow-up question to the first follow-up question, and so on.

You may need to do a different dashboard for each hierarchy tree if it is too cumbersome to answer in the same dashboard. The test here is to think what is easiest and most natural to a user. The goal is for the dashboard or presentation order to follow the thought processes of the audience.

We will walk through a full example using an IoT data set later on in the chapter.