The design of your Power BI dashboard is a key element to ensuring you are communicating the information effectively to your audience. A badly designed canvas can make your report difficult to read and can even be misleading.
Welcome to the Iamdata Solutions Asset Management Monthly Newsletter - October 2022
A few months ago, I briefly covered this in the newsletter, Power BI Data Model Best Practices 7# . In this month’s newsletter, I’m going to share my main Power BI dashboard design rules so you can easily implement them in your next Power BI project.
Keep it simple
It is important to use the correct visual for the data you want to visualise. When designing dashboards, especially those aimed at people who are not used to working with data, it is crucial to show the information in the most understandable way possible. The data behind the graphs, charts, and visuals is usually complex, but the visuals that represent the data must be simple to ensure anyone can understand it.
Don't fill your report with wall-to-wall visuals - too many visuals in the same report can result in confusion and slow down the speed of the report loading and refreshing. Microsoft recommends that a report should have no more than 8 visuals and no more than one table per page for optimal results.
Keep it simple - using too many unnecessary visual element in the charts, such as backgrounds, pictures and icons can distract the viewer from the information you are trying to convey.
This example below is way over the top – but you can see how distracting and confusing it is to have too many charts, too many unnecessary design features, and too much clutter.
It is sometimes easy to get carried away filling the dashboard with as many charts as possible to show off all the data, and it's really tempting to show off a 'cool' new visual just because it's a cool new visual, where a simple bar chart would probably do the job of conveying the message better.
A cluttered dashboard looks messy and disorganised, and too much information can make the information difficult to read. The end user can be left feeling overwhelmed.
Reduce unnecessary interactions between visuals
You can improve the performance of the Power BI report by minimising the number of automatic queries on the back-end and disabling unnecessary interactions. Power BI automatically enables interactions between all visuals on the same page. It is important to understand that interactions between visuals absorbs capacity and contributes to a slow refresh and report loading.
Slicers
Slicers are great to help users navigate through the visuals. However, it is important to note that each slicer requires two queries and this will affect the performance and capacity of the report.
Limit complex aggregations in data models
It is beneficial to limit complex aggregations in your data model. Too many calculated columns in the Power BI visualisation environment will overload your report and increase loading time and the time it takes to refresh the data.
If you do need to perform calculated measures and complex aggregations then you should build them as close to the data source as possible rather than in the Power BI visualisaton environment. When I am pulling data from a system I am often using a SQL query to do so and this is where I often build those complex aggregations.
If I'm adding a column to the table once the data has been imported into Power BI then I always use the Power Query Editor. It's easy to create, rename, transform as necessary and it adds it as an Applied Step in the Query Settings of the query. This makes it really easy to see what has been done and makes it easy to change, move or modify it at any time. It also looks neater in the table, (in my opinion 😁)
Don't overdo it
Present the data in a way that makes the story the data is telling us easily understood.
The example below displays the data effectively. The type of chart and table used here makes sense for the data it is displaying and the added design features add to the comprehension of the report rather than distracting from it.
I like to plan the dashboard in advance. I will have an idea of how I would like the dashboard to look and the visuals I'll be using to display the data. Then I will divide the canvas into sections using a simple line to create the different spaces for the visuals to go.
Microsoft-certified visuals
There are so many visuals available to us in Microsoft's AppSource. You will find a list of all visuals that have been quality tested and certified by Microsoft. You will also find many more that have not been put thought the quality tested regime. These may be fine to use, but be aware that they have not been tested as the Microsoft-certified visuals have been and you can be sure that the certified visuals meet Microsoft's code requirements and are the only ones that can be displayed in PowerPoint export mode or in email subscriptions.
Consider the audience
If you are building the Power BI dashboard for someone else, then you will have had many discussions with that person/group to fully understand their requirements. You should understand what information they want displayed, where that data is stored, and the purpose of the dashboard, e.g., for presentation purposes, for internal analysis, external consumption, etc. If the reports are for external consumption then make sure the target audience do not have access to the underline data and ensure the visualisations do not contain sensitive information.
Adding security measures to data, assigning different roles to users and securely sharing reports is vital.
Avoid importing complete data sets
When I'm importing data from a corporate database, e.g. Authority, TechOne, Asset Management systems, etc, I always link to the database and write a SQL query to pull out specific data required for the Power BI report. We only want what we need in the Power BI reports and to limit the size of the dataset.
Be consistent
Maintaining consistency throughout the Power BI project adds to the readability and understanding of the Power BI dashboard. For example, use the same metrics, colours, visuals, charts, titles, and the information's layout to make it easier for the end user to digest the information and make sense out of it.
This is where designing the canvas beforehand can help.
Once you've designed a canvas you are happy with, you can use it as a template for your other reports and use the duplicate the page option to ensure consistency throughout your Power BI Project.
Design a good Model
I have already written about the Best Practice Power BI Model, https://www.iamdata.solutions/post/power-bi-data-model-best-practices-newsletter-7
but it's worth another quick mention here.
A good model design using the star schema allows you to build powerful reports and is more efficient than building calculated columns.
Hope you have found this helpful.
I have worked on many different projects with my Local Government clients, from designing and developing Power BI Reports, to building SQL Server databases for spatial data, to managing and maintaining the GIS and the Asset Management systems. If you'd like to discuss how we might work together, then please email me at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions
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