Skip to main content

Power BI Visuals: Choosing the Right Chart for the Right Insight

Power BI Visuals: Choosing the Right Chart for the Right Insight




1. Bar/Column Charts


  • Use When: Comparing categories side by side.
  • Best For: Sales by product category, profit by region.
  • Tip: Use bar charts for long category names and column charts for time-based data.


2. Line Charts


  • Use When: Tracking trends over time.
  • Best For: Revenue growth over months, website traffic over days.
  • Tip: Add markers to emphasize specific data points like peaks or dips.


3. Pie/Donut Charts


  • Use When: Showing parts of a whole.
  • Best For: Market share distribution, budget allocation.
  • Tip: Avoid more than 5 slices; consider alternatives for complex data.


4. Combo Charts (Line and Bar)


  • Use When: Showing two different types of data with one shared axis.
  • Best For: Comparing revenue (bars) vs. profit margin (line).
  • Tip: Use contrasting colors for clarity.


5. Scatter Charts


  • Use When: Analyzing relationships between two variables.
  • Best For: Sales vs. customer age, marketing spend vs. conversions.
  • Tip: Use size and color to represent additional dimensions like profit or region.


6. Treemaps


  • Use When: Showing hierarchical data with proportional sizes.
  • Best For: Product portfolio contribution, regional sales breakdown.
  • Tip: Best for a quick overview; less effective with too many small segments.


7. Funnel Charts


  • Use When: Displaying a sequential process or pipeline.
  • Best For: Sales funnel, recruitment process.
  • Tip: Ensure the process is linear and stages are clearly defined.


8. Gauge Charts


  • Use When: Showing progress toward a target.
  • Best For: KPIs like sales targets, budget utilization.
  • Tip: Use sparingly to avoid clutter and focus on a single metric.


9. Card Visuals


  • Use When: Highlighting key metrics.
  • Best For: Total revenue, number of customers, average order value.
  • Tip: Ideal for dashboards needing quick-glance insights.


10. Maps (Basic, Filled, and ArcGIS)


  • Use When: Displaying geographic data.
  • Best For: Sales by country, store locations, population density.
  • Tip: Use filled maps for regional comparisons and bubble maps for pinpoint locations.


11. Matrix/Table


  • Use When: Displaying detailed data in rows and columns.
  • Best For: Financial statements, itemized sales reports.
  • Tip: Use conditional formatting to highlight key data.


12. Slicers


  • Use When: Allowing users to filter data interactively.
  • Best For: Date ranges, category filters.
  • Tip: Use dropdown slicers to save space on the dashboard.


13. KPI Visuals


  • Use When: Comparing actuals to targets.
  • Best For: Monthly sales vs. target, customer satisfaction score.
  • Tip: Combine with trend indicators for a complete performance overview.


14. Waterfall Charts


  • Use When: Showing how an initial value is affected by sequential positive or negative changes.
  • Best For: Profit breakdown, cost analysis.
  • Tip: Highlight the net total for better comprehension.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connecting Power BI to Azure Data Lake: Streamlining Big Data Analytics

Connecting Power BI to Azure Data Lake: Streamlining Big Data Analytics Azure Data Lake and Power BI provide a powerful combination for businesses to handle and analyze large datasets efficiently. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how connecting Power BI to Azure Data Lake helps streamline big data analytics. 1. What is Azure Data Lake? Azure Data Lake is a cloud-based storage solution designed to handle large volumes of structured and unstructured data. It provides highly scalable and cost-effective storage, making it an ideal choice for big data projects, data lakes, and large-scale analytics. 2. Benefits of Connecting Power BI to Azure Data Lake Handling Large Datasets : Power BI’s integration with Azure Data Lake allows users to work with large datasets without needing to import all the data into Power BI. Instead, users can connect and query data directly. Scalable Analytics : Azure Data Lake’s ability to scale horizontally ensures that it can handle growing volumes of data se...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Do People Dislike DAX and Data Modeling in Power BI?

Why Do People Dislike DAX and Data Modeling in Power BI? Many Power BI users express frustration with DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) and data modeling , primarily due to their complexity and steep learning curves.  Reasons Why People Dislike DAX Steep Learning Curve : DAX has a syntax that can feel unintuitive for newcomers, especially for those without prior experience in Excel's Power Pivot or similar analytical languages. The concept of row context vs. filter context is often confusing and requires significant effort to master. Complexity of Advanced Calculations : Basic measures like sums and averages are straightforward, but creating advanced measures (e.g., time intelligence, ranking, or cumulative totals) can quickly become overwhelming. Many users struggle with understanding functions like CALCULATE , FILTER , and ALL , which are essential for advanced analytics. Error Handling : DAX error messages are not always clear or descriptive, making it difficult to debug issues ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leveraging Power BI's Bookmarks and Selections for Interactive Dashboards

Leveraging Power BI's Bookmarks and Selections for Interactive Dashboards Bookmarks and Selections in Power BI are powerful features that can significantly enhance the interactivity and user experience of dashboards. Here's how you can use them effectively: 1. What are Bookmarks in Power BI? Bookmarks capture the current state of a report page, including: Visible or hidden visuals Filter states Slicer selections Sort order, drill state, and focus mode By saving different views of your report with bookmarks, you can create interactive storytelling, custom navigation, and dynamic reports. 2. What is the Selection Pane? The Selection Pane lets you control the visibility of report visuals. Using the pane, you can: Show or hide visuals based on user actions Layer visuals in an orderly manner to control how users interact with them Combine with bookmarks to toggle the visibility of different report components 3. Use Cases for Bookmarks and Selections Here are some common scenarios ...
Post a Comment
Read more