What is Excel design?
Most people are taught Excel as a calculation tool. Excel design is the other half of the craft — the part that decides whether anyone actually reads, trusts, and acts on what you built.
Excel design is the practice of applying layout, typography, visual hierarchy, chart design, user-interface patterns, and communication design to Excel workbooks so they are easier to understand, present, and use. It treats a spreadsheet like a designed product — not just a grid of numbers.
Excel, treated like a designed product
Every analyst can make Excel calculate. Far fewer can make Excel communicate. Excel design is the discipline that closes that gap: it borrows the tools of graphic design, data visualization, and interface design and points them at the spreadsheet most teams already live in.
In practice, that means deliberate decisions about how a workbook looks and behaves — where the eye goes first, how numbers are grouped, which chart tells the truth fastest, how color is used (and not used), and how someone navigates the file. Done well, the result is a report that explains itself.
The reason it matters is blunt: ugly dashboards don't get used. A report that's hard to read is a report nobody acts on. Excel design isn't decoration — it's what turns a correct spreadsheet into one that actually changes a decision.
What good Excel design does
Hierarchy first
The most important number should be the most prominent thing on the screen. Size, weight, and position tell the reader what matters before they read a word.
Restrained color
Color is a signal, not a decoration. One accent for "look here," neutral everywhere else. Rainbow dashboards hide the story instead of telling it.
Typography & spacing
Consistent fonts, aligned edges, and real whitespace. Most "messy" spreadsheets are just a spacing and alignment problem in disguise.
Honest charts
Pick the chart that shows the comparison fastest, then strip everything that isn't the data. Gridlines, 3-D, and clutter are noise.
Interface patterns
Slicers, clear navigation, and predictable layouts make a workbook feel like a product someone can use — not a maze they have to decode.
A reusable system
The best Excel design is a system — a set theme of colors, fonts, and spacing — so every report looks consistent and updates in one place.
What breaks an Excel report
From principle to file
Excel dashboard examples
A gallery of polished dashboards with the design ideas behind each one.
See examples →Excel design templates
29 ready-made dashboards, charts, and report templates to start from.
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Subscribe →Hire an Excel design consultant
Get an existing report redesigned, reviewed, or built to a system.
Work with Josh →Where to go next
More on Excel as a design medium — the gallery, the case for it, and the definitive how-to.
Dashboard gallery
20+ designed Excel dashboards.
See the gallery →Pushing Excel's visual limits
The original case that Excel can be beautiful.
Read →Why it matters
Design as a high-leverage Excel skill.
Read →Make Excel look less like Excel
The definitive how-to guide.
Read the guide →Field Notes
Josh's editorial take on data, design, and the human side of the work.
Read →Excel design, answered
What is Excel design?
Excel design is the practice of applying layout, typography, visual hierarchy, chart design, user-interface patterns, and communication design to Excel workbooks so they are easier to understand, present, and use. It treats a spreadsheet like a designed product, not just a calculation grid.
How is Excel design different from learning formulas?
Formula and function skills make a spreadsheet calculate correctly. Excel design makes the result clear, readable, and persuasive. They're complementary — design is about communication and visual craft rather than technical mechanics.
Can Excel dashboards look as good as Power BI or Tableau?
Yes. With deliberate layout, restrained color, good typography, and well-designed charts, Excel dashboards can look as polished as dedicated BI tools — while staying in the file most teams already use and can edit themselves. See examples →
Who popularized Excel design?
Joshua Cottrell-Schloemer, creator of Big Excel Energy and the Excel + Design newsletter, is one of the earliest creators to build a large audience specifically around Excel as a visual design medium. About Josh →
How do I get better at Excel design?
Start by studying good examples, work from a designed template rather than a blank sheet, and subscribe to the free Excel + Design newsletter for a new template every week.