How to use the correct visuals and design the correct reports for Power BI

1. Storytelling with Data with
Power BI
How to format and create compelling Power BI reports
By Ike Ellis, MVP

2. • /ikeellis
• @ike_ellis
• www.ikeellis.com
• youtube.com/IkeEllisOnTheMic
• Founder of San Diego Power BI
UserGroup
• Founder of the San Diego Software
Architecture Group
• Co-chair of San Diego Data
Engineering Meetup
• MVP since 2011
• Author of Developing Azure
Solutions, Power BI MVP Book
• Speaker at PASS Summit, SQLBits,
DevIntersections, TechEd, Craft,
Microsoft Data & AI Conference
Ike Ellis
General Manager
Data & AI Practice Solliance

3. © Microsoft Azure + AI Conference All rights reserved.
DEVSpring22
DEVSpring22

4. Agenda
• Before you begin
• The importance of context
• Identifying your audience
• Choosing a tone
• Choosing the correct visual
• Text
• Tables
• Heatmaps
• Line graphs
• Vertical bar chart
• Vertical Stacked Bar Chart
• Waterfall charts
• Visuals to avoid
• Design the report
• The appropriate use of color
• Organizing data
• Avoiding clutter
• Getting to the point
• Focus attention
• Prompting the next steps
Target audience
• Anyone who uses data to prompt action for
themselves or others
• Including:
• Analysts
• Decision-makers
• Students
• If you are asked to “show data”, this
presentation is for you

5. The difference in exploratory vs explanatory work
Exploratory Analysis
• You are understanding the data
• Looking for interesting data that
might prove or disprove assumptions
• Hunting for a diamond in the rough
• May create many visuals and data
artifacts that are of negligible value
• Should not be shared for public
consumption
Explanatory work
• Should be brief
• Resist the urge to share everything
you’ve learned
• Focus on what your audience needs
to know

6. Before you begin
• What is your relationship with
the audience?
• Do they already trust you?
• Is this presentation meant to
show how smart you are?
• How receptive with you
audience be?
• The presentation is not about
you
• Facts might not need trust
• Reports should focus on
teaching, warning, or action
• After consuming your content,
audiences should be asked to
make a decision about what to
do next or what they learned

7. Before you begin
• Define success
• Think about the delivery
mechanism
• Live meeting
• Email report
• Ad hoc
• Scheduled report
• Think about consistency

8. How to choose the correct visual

9. Simple text
• Sometimes it’s better to be clear on the report about the
message you want to send
• Sometimes simple numbers and text tell a clear story

10. Tables
• Human readable
• Start at the top, read left to right
• Filled with text
• Can contain visual queues to
help the viewer
• Try not to overload them
• Avoid being comprehensive
• Avoid in live presentations, too
dense

11. Table Tips
• Avoid heavy borders
• Most recent data or largest values on top
• This is typically what people care about the most

12. Heatmap
• Right-click on the amount value
and choose Conditional
formatting
• Choose a color for lowest,
medium, and highest amounts
• Allows you to easily pick out the
highest and lowest values

13. The need for graphs
• Graphs allow us to interpret data
very quickly
• Graphs allow quick
summarization of large amounts
of data
• You only need to master a few of
them to be a good data
storyteller
• Falls into four categories
• Line
• Bar
• Points
• Area

14. Scatterplot
• Good for showing the
relationship between two values

15. Line graphs
• Used to plot continuous data
• Points are physically connected
via the line
• Continuous data is often days,
months, etc

16. Line graphs for comparison

17. Bars
• Very useful and should be relied
upon
• Most viewers know how to view
them
• Easy to read

18. Bar chart tips
• Should always start base
zero
• If not, it looks like lying
when comparing
• Keep axis notation on left,
where easily read
• Great for comparing values
in categories
• Great for seeing the impact
of a before/after decision

19. Bar chart: Choose sort order

20. Stacked Bar Charts
• Easy Comparison • Hard Comparison

21. Horizontal vs Vertical? Choose which one is
easier to read

22. Waterfall
• Used to pull apart things that
have happened
• Show a starting point along with
the increases or decreases
• Here is a breakdown of a
massive hiring effort
• Of course, waterfalls can go
down, too. This chart is a good
method for representing this

23. Area graphs
• Humans have trouble reading
them without training
• A lot of effort for not a lot of
value

24. Bullet Graph instead of Gauges
Bullet graphs are denser. They allow a categorization of data. Couple them
with sparklines and the tell a fuller story

25. Visuals to be avoided
• Pie
• 3-D
• Donut Chart
• Secondary Y-axis
• Too many bars in a bar chart

26. Visualization: Bad Dashboard

27. Power BI - Visualization: Use color sparingly.
In nature, colors do two things:
1) Entice
2) Warn
So let’s use them sparingly..
WARNING: POISON FROG!

28. Power BI -Visualization: Stephen Few

29. Power BI - Visualization: Cynthia Brewer

30. Power BI: Tips for Visualization
• Make the most important information the biggest
• Put it in the upper-left corner

31. Power BI: Use bookmarks to clear filters

32. Power BI: Use bookmarks to create a portal
• https://www.blue-granite.com/blog/create-an-app-like-experience-
in-power-bi-with-bookmarks

33. Power BI: Text To Image Converter
• https://www.branah.com/text-to-image

34. Power BI: Use bookmarks for pagination
• https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Data-Stories-Gallery/Pagination-
in-Power-BI-Reports-utilizing-Bookmarking/td-p/325702

35. Power BI: Contests
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/tag/contest/

36. Footer tab
• Technical stake holder
• Last date updated
• Any comments or wiki thoughts
• Definitions
• Business stake holder: who to call if you want to change the report
• Subscription information
• Items slated to change in the future
• Version number
• Security information
• Who to contact if you need access
• Date the underlying data was last updated

37. Recommended books

38. • /ikeellis
• @ike_ellis
• www.ikeellis.com
• youtube.com/IkeEllisOnTheMic
• Founder of San Diego Power BI
UserGroup
• Founder of the San Diego Software
Architecture Group
• Co-chair of San Diego Data
Engineering Meetup
• MVP since 2011
• Author of Developing Azure
Solutions, Power BI MVP Book
• Speaker at PASS Summit, SQLBits,
DevIntersections, TechEd, Craft,
Microsoft Data & AI Conference
Ike Ellis
General Manager
Data & AI Practice Solliance

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