By the end of this page you can look at a folder of eight finished sheets and say which two or three belong on the dashboard, which one goes in the upper-left corner, and which of Tableau's three sizing options to pick. You'll also have a one-sentence test that decides every one of those calls. It's about fifteen minutes.
Here's the move to make today. Open your busiest dashboard and write the single question it answers, in one sentence, for one named person. Then remove every view that isn't part of answering it. Most people delete half, and the half that survives lands harder than the whole thing did.
The short version: Tableau's own guidance is two or three views on a dashboard. Crowding is what happens when one dashboard is asked to serve several audiences at once.
Where the surviving views sit is the second decision, and it has a known answer, so that gets the picture.
The original carries a diagram here. In words: A single dashboard rectangle divided into three panes. One large pane occupies the whole upper-left area and spans most of the width. Two smaller panes sit below it, side by side. A curved arrow enters at the top-left corner of the large pane, travels right across it, then drops down and moves left to right across the two smaller panes, showing the order a reader takes them in. A small numeral one sits on the large pane, two and three on the smaller panes. The drawing shows that the first thing a reader meets is whatever occupies the upper left, so the most important view belongs there and the supporting views belong underneath.
