Choosing an appropriate visualization type – Creating Reports

Choosing an appropriate visualization type

Power BI offers many options for visualization using out-of-the-box capabilities that are available directly in the Visualizations pane. By selecting the fields you’d like to use in the visualization, you can drag and drop the fields to the various configurations and quickly see the outcome in the visualization displayed in the report canvas to find the visualization and configuration that best tells the data story you’d like to communicate.

Additionally, there are visuals available in Microsoft AppSource that provide further visualization beyond the capabilities built in. You can even create your own custom visuals if you cannot find the exact visualization that tells your story the way you want it to be told.

Figure 9.8 – Custom Power BI visuals in Microsoft AppSource

When selecting the visualization type, it’s best to consider the data being presented. For example, geographic data may not be best displayed using a pie or line chart. Some data can be presented in multiple ways, such as geographic data being displayed in a map visual but also in a table. The best visual in a scenario such as this will depend on the specific story you’re telling with the data.

Selecting the best visualization type may take some time to get optimized but it can make a big impact on the way your data is communicated.

Table and matrix visualizations

Tables and matrixes are some of the most elemental reporting visualizations. They provide the report consumer with a nice grid of data. As you will see later in this chapter, you can “decorate” your tables and matrixes with conditional formatting, making “boring” data grids quite informative.

The table visual is a rectangular grid that displays data in rows and columns. The table has two dimensions. It has headers and, by default, a row for totals. It looks like a table in an Excel spreadsheet.

Figure 9.9 – The table visual and its configuration

The matrix visualization looks similar to the table visualization; however, it allows you to display rows, columns, and values. It looks and acts much like a PivotTable from Excel.

Figure 9.10 – The matrix visual and configuration

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