How to customize your Storyboard Appearance Using the Design Panel

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Prerequisites: How to build queries using the Define panel – read this article first

What you’ll learn

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to:

• Open the Design panel and navigate its settings sections.
• Change chart colours, series types, and data labels.
• Configure axis settings, legends, and layout options.
• Apply consistent styling across multiple tiles.

Overview

The Design panel controls how a tile looks. Where Define answers "what data does this tile show?", Design answers "how should that data be presented visually?" Colours, fonts, axis labels, legends, data labels, stacking, and series types are all configured here.

Changes in the Design panel apply immediately to the tile preview, so you can experiment with settings and see the result in real time before saving.

Opening the Design panel

1. Enter Modify Mode by clicking on the pencil icon at the top right of the Storyboard title bar.
2. Select a tile, then click the Settings icon on the Tile Configuration Panel.
3. Navigate to the Design tab.

What’s in the Design panel

The Design panel is organised into sections. The exact sections vary by tile type, but the most common ones for Basic Charts are:

Metric Style

Controls how each metric is displayed. Select a metric from the dropdown to configure it individually. Key settings include:

• Series Type – column, line, area, area spline, or spline.
• Horizontal Bars – flips a column chart to horizontal orientation.
• Stacking – none, values, or percentages. Stacking layers data to show composition.
• Data Labels – toggle on/off and choose format (values, percentages, both, or series name).
• Separate Y-Axis – adds a second Y-axis on the right side for metrics with different scales.

For a detailed walkthrough of series types, stacking, and mixed chart configurations, see: Introduction to Chart Types in One Model. For data label formatting and percentage calculations, see: Basic Chart Options in Define.

Axis settings

Controls the X and Y axes. You can set minimum and maximum values, control tick marks and gridlines, show or hide axis titles, and adjust label rotation for long category names.

Legend

Controls the legend position (top, bottom, left, right) and visibility. For tiles with a single metric, hiding the legend can free up space. For multi-metric tiles, positioning the legend at the bottom keeps the chart area maximised.

For advanced legend customisation including custom labels and display options, see: Custom Chart Legends Guide.

Colour settings

You can set colours at the chart level or at the individual metric level. One Model uses a chart colour palette that your Admin can configure centrally through Admin > Branding. You can also override colours on a per-chart basis in the Design panel.

Tip: For a consistent look across your Storyboard, use the centrally managed palette and only override colours when a specific tile needs to stand out. See the Chart Color Palette guide for setup details.

Table-specific settings

List Table tiles have additional Design options including conditional formatting, column headers, pagination, change indicators, and sparklines. These settings are covered in detail in the list reports and table-specific guides.

Design settings for KPI tiles

KPI Chart tiles have their own Design sections: Key Value (primary metric display), Change Indicator (period-over-period comparison styling), and Chart Options. See: How to create and configure KPI charts in Storyboards.

Applying consistent styling across tiles

When you’re building a Storyboard with multiple tiles, visual consistency helps viewers focus on the data rather than adjusting to different formatting. A few practices that help:

• Use the same chart colour palette across all tiles – rely on the centrally managed palette rather than per-chart overrides.
• Pick one or two series types and use them consistently. Mixing too many series types across tiles can make the Storyboard feel cluttered.
• Position legends in the same location on every tile. Bottom-centre is the most common default.
• Use data labels sparingly. They’re most useful on KPI tiles and summary charts; on dense charts with many data points, they create visual noise.

Quick reference – where to find common settings

Next steps

Now that you can style your tiles, you might want to explore:

• Introduction to Chart Types in One Model – a focused guide to series types, stacking, and mixed chart configurations.
• Basic Chart Options in Define – data labels, percentage formatting, filtering, and diverging bar charts.

• Chart Color Palette – how to set up and manage your colour palette.