How to Build a Dashboard with Shadcn UI and Next.js

Dashboards are the most time-consuming frontend projects to build. The sidebar alone — with collapsible navigation, nested menus, active state tracking, and mobile responsive behavior — can take a full day. Add stat cards, charts, data tables, and settings pages, and you're looking at a week of pure UI work before you've connected any real data.

This guide shows how to assemble a complete dashboard using SERP Blocks and Shadcn UI, reducing that week to an afternoon.

Dashboard Architecture

A typical SaaS dashboard consists of:

1. Sidebar navigation — Primary navigation for the app

2. Header bar — User menu, notifications, search

3. Overview page — Stat cards and summary charts

4. Data pages — Tables with sorting, filtering, pagination

5. Detail pages — Individual record views

6. Settings — User profile, preferences, billing

7. Account overview — Subscription status and usage

Each maps to a block category in SERP Blocks.

Step 1: Sidebar Navigation

The sidebar is the skeleton of your dashboard. Browse the admin sidebar collection (10 designs) for options including:

• Collapsible sidebar — Full labels that collapse to icon-only on narrow screens or user toggle

• Sidebar with sections — Navigation items grouped under section headings (Dashboard, Content, Settings)

• Sidebar with user avatar — User profile display at the bottom with logout action

• Sidebar with nested menus — Expandable sub-navigation for complex app structures

• Sidebar with notification badges — Count indicators for items needing attention

The sidebar should be implemented as a layout component that wraps your dashboard pages. In Next.js App Router:

// app/dashboard/layout.tsx
export default function DashboardLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <div className="flex min-h-screen">
      <Sidebar />
      <main className="flex-1">{children}</main>
    </div>
  )
}

This ensures the sidebar persists across all dashboard pages without re-rendering on navigation.

Step 2: Overview Page

The dashboard homepage shows key metrics at a glance. Browse the dashboard collection (20 designs) for complete overview layouts.

Stat Cards

The top of the dashboard typically shows 3-4 stat cards with key metrics:

• Revenue — Current period revenue with comparison to previous period

• Users — Active users, new signups, or total accounts

• Orders/Conversions — Primary business metric

• Growth indicator — Percentage change with up/down arrow

Stat cards should show the metric name, current value, comparison value, and trend direction. Green for positive, red for negative — this visual encoding lets users assess performance without reading every number.

Charts

Below the stat cards, one or two charts provide trend visualization:

• Line chart — Revenue or user growth over time

• Bar chart — Monthly comparisons or category breakdowns

• Area chart — Cumulative metrics over time

Shadcn UI's Chart component is built on Recharts, providing a consistent API for all chart types. Charts should be interactive — tooltips on hover showing exact values, and optionally clickable for drill-down views.

Recent Activity

A list or table showing the most recent transactions, signups, or events. This gives the dashboard a sense of real-time activity and provides quick access to items that might need attention.

Step 3: Data Tables

Most dashboard pages beyond the overview display data in tables. Browse the table collection (17 designs) for options including:

• Sortable tables — Click column headers to sort ascending/descending

• Filterable tables — Search inputs and dropdown filters to narrow results

• Paginated tables — Page controls for large datasets

• Selectable rows — Checkboxes for bulk actions (delete, export, status change)

• Expandable rows — Click a row to reveal additional detail without navigating away

For production dashboards, consider using TanStack Table as the data management layer. It handles sorting, filtering, pagination, and selection logic while our blocks provide the visual presentation.

Table Actions

Each table row typically needs action buttons — edit, view, delete, or status change. Our table blocks include action column patterns:

• Dropdown menu — Three-dot menu with action options

• Inline buttons — Visible edit/delete buttons on each row

• Row click — Entire row is clickable, navigating to a detail page

Step 4: Account and Settings Pages

Every dashboard needs user-facing management pages.

Account Overview

The account overview collection (10 designs) provides layouts for:

• Plan summary — Current subscription tier, renewal date, usage limits

• Usage metrics — API calls, storage, bandwidth with visual progress bars

• Billing history — Past invoices with download links

• Team management — List of team members with roles and invite flow

Settings Pages

The settings collection (10 designs) includes:

• Profile settings — Name, email, avatar, password change

• Notification preferences — Toggle switches for email, push, in-app notifications

• Security settings — Two-factor authentication, API keys, session management

• Danger zone — Account deletion with confirmation flow

Settings pages use Shadcn's form components — Input, Select, Switch, and Button — for consistent styling across all preference controls.

Step 5: Authentication

Dashboard access requires authentication. SERP Blocks provides complete auth screen designs:

• Login pages (17 designs) — Email/password, social login, magic link

• Sign up pages (11 designs) — Registration forms with validation

• Forgot password (10 designs) — Password reset flow

These auth screens should live outside your dashboard layout (no sidebar) and redirect to the dashboard on successful authentication.

Step 6: Onboarding

New users need guidance. The onboarding collection (12 designs) provides:

• Welcome screens — First-time user greeting with setup steps

• Setup wizards — Multi-step forms for initial configuration

• Progress checklists — Guided task lists that track completion

• Feature tours — Highlighted feature introductions

Good onboarding directly impacts activation rates — the percentage of users who experience your product's core value. A well-designed onboarding flow can double your activation rate compared to dropping users into a blank dashboard.

Responsive Dashboard Design

Dashboards need to work on tablets, and ideally provide basic functionality on phones. The responsive strategy:

Desktop (1280px+)

Full sidebar + main content area. Stat cards in a 4-column grid. Charts at full width. Tables with all columns visible.

Tablet (768-1279px)

Sidebar collapses to icon-only or becomes a hamburger menu. Stat cards in a 2-column grid. Charts maintain full width. Tables may hide less important columns.

Mobile (< 768px)

Sidebar becomes a bottom tab bar or hamburger overlay. Stat cards stack single-column. Charts are swipeable. Tables use a card-based alternative view.

All SERP Blocks dashboard components handle these responsive breakpoints automatically.

Complete Dashboard Block Summary

That's 117 blocks for building complete dashboard experiences. All available at SERP Blocks with 60 free blocks and the full 1200+ library through a one-time Pro purchase.