Is It Out of Scope? — Web design
Is building a custom reporting dashboard out of scope for a web design project?
Yes. A live, interactive reporting dashboard is an application feature — data pipelines, visualizations, a UI that updates — not a design deliverable, even when the visuals resemble the charts and layouts a design engagement might otherwise produce.
A client sometimes wants a dashboard where they (or their team) can log in and see live metrics — traffic, conversions, whatever matters to them — updating in real time. It's easy to see how this gets pitched to a design team, since a dashboard is visually a set of charts and layouts. But making it live and interactive means pulling real data from somewhere, storing it, and building the application logic that renders it — a functioning tool, not a static design.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. Designing what a dashboard could look like (mockups, a visual system for the charts and metrics) is legitimate design work. Building the actual interactive, data-connected dashboard is application development, well outside a design engagement's scope.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Deliverables clause→ — Scopes the project to visual design deliverables — a live, data-connected dashboard is an application feature outside that, even where the visual design of the dashboard itself is in scope.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
I can design what the dashboard should look like — layout, chart styles, how the metrics are presented. Making it live and interactive — pulling real data and building the application behind it — is development work outside our design scope. I'm happy to hand off design specs to a developer for that piece.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow distinguishes a request for dashboard visuals (inside a design scope) from a request for a working, data-connected dashboard (outside it) — the former reads as a design deliverable, the latter is flagged outside_scope with an explanation noting the application/data layer involved.