How to Create Effective Dashboards in Microsoft Power BI

Data visualization is a powerful tool for communicating complex data. It presents data in a simple, easily understandable format. It's not enough to simply create a chart or table and call it a day. To truly use the information to its full potential, it's important to create effective reports. Reports that effectively communicate the story behind the data.

Clear reporting helps decision-makers understand key trends and patterns, identify opportunities, and make informed decisions. If analytical charts and bar graphs only tell part of the story, it can lead people to make poor decisions.

Creating holistic and clear reports requires the use of multiple data points. One tool that enables this is Microsoft Power BI.

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool. It allows you to connect multiple data sources to a dashboard. Using Power BI, you can easily model and visualize data holistically.

The platform has over 500 different data connectors. These connectors can tap into sources such as Salesforce, Excel, Azure, and more. Users can leverage pre-built report templates to save time creating data-rich reports. Teams can also collaborate and share dashboards virtually.

Tips for Designing Great Data Visualization Reports

Getting started in Microsoft Power BI involves:

• Register for the software
• Connect your data sources
• Using its tools to create visual reports

However, creating great reports goes beyond that. Below, we'll review several tips and best practices to get the most out of your use of Power BI.

Consider your audience

You should design reporting dashboards with the end user in mind. What does this audience want to see? Are they looking for net sales figures? Do they want to cover information that can help target productivity gaps?

Using clear, concise language and effective visualizations is important. These help highlight key takeaways from the data. Customize reports based on the audience's technical expertise and business goals.

Don't complicate things

Too much is just as much as not enough. If you find your dashboard looks cluttered, you may be adding too many reports. The more you add, the harder it is to read the data's conclusions.

Remove all but the most essential reports. Look for ways to include different data sets in a single report, such as using stacked bar charts. Dashboards should display important data at a glance, so do your best to avoid having to scroll for too long.

Try different types of charts

Try presenting your data in different ways. Switch between bars, pie charts, and other chart types to find the one that best represents the data. When creating a new dashboard for your organization, gather feedback. Ask those who will be reviewing the reports which chart type works best for them.

Discover Power Query

Power Query is a data preparation engine. It can save you a lot of time when creating clear reports. This engine is used in Microsoft tools like Power BI and Excel.

Take the time to learn how to leverage this tool to help you:

• Connect a wide range of data sources to the dashboard
• Preview data queries
• Create intuitive queries across multiple data sources
• Define data size, variety, and velocity

Create maps with tips for Bing

Bing and Power BI are integrated, allowing you to leverage map coordinates by default. Use best practices to leverage Bing's mapping power to improve your geocoding.

For example, if you want to plot cities on a map, name your columns after the geographic designation. This helps Bing identify exactly what you're looking for.

Describe to people what they are looking at

A typical comment often heard when presenting a new report to executives is, “What am I looking at?” Tell your audience what the data means by using features like tooltips and text boxes to add context.

Just one or two sentences can save someone 5 to 10 minutes of trying to understand why you gave them this report. This context can help them make a decision more quickly. It also helps avoid any confusion or misunderstanding about the data.

Use Emphasis Tricks

People generally read from left to right and top to bottom. So place your most important chart in the top left corner. Follow with the next most important reports.

If you have specific numbers that need to stand out, increase the font size or make the text bold . This ensures your audience understands the key takeaways.

You can also use colors to highlight things like "low," "medium," and "high." For example, a low level of accidents could be green, a medium level could be yellow, and a high level could be red. This provides more visual context to the data.

Need help with Power BI or other Microsoft products?

We can help you get started or improve your use of Microsoft 365, Power BI, and more. Contact us now to schedule a meeting on using this powerful platform.

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Nexxo Computer Solutions specializes in providing IT and technology services to Quebec businesses. Its mission is to offer Quebec companies IT services tailored to their needs. Acting as an external IT department, it handles all of a company's IT tasks, allowing it to focus on its business activities. It achieves this by collaborating closely with its clients and putting their interests at the center of its concerns.