Understanding the capabilities of Power BI
Reporting and visualization capabilities are the core functionalities of Power BI. After sourcing data and modeling the data, you are now well positioned to take full advantage of it.
Imagine you want to show your boss gross revenue by state by product item group. You could create a table of data, much like what you would see in Excel.
Figure 9.1 – Data represented as a table
This is a decent way to show data, but it is not compelling. We could instead use the data storytelling capabilities in Power BI and create something like this:
Figure 9.2 – Data represented as a bar chart
Notice how you get a much better “feel” for the data when it is visualized like this. It’s less confusing and drives your eyes and brain to understand how gross profit changes between states.
Or, even better, we could use the map visualization and have something such as this:
Figure 9.3 – Data represented as a map
This allows us to visualize our sales across the entire United States.
The great thing about all three choices is you get to choose. It’s your story to tell. Sometimes a table of data is the correct choice, while sometimes you need a more visual way of displaying your data.
Adding visualization items to reports
Power BI installs with many visuals you can use to tell your data story. These visuals allow you to highlight the data you want in order to explain insights you have discovered in your data that lead to actions your business can take.
Reporting is a lens on your data, allowing non-technical people to understand your business’s data. By visualizing your data, you make that data more accessible to a wider audience.
In Power BI, each visual you can use, from pie charts to funnel charts to some of the more esoteric visualizations, such as decomposition tree and key influencers, are all represented by their own icons in the Visualizations pane.
Figure 9.4 – Built-in visuals for building Power BI reports
The interface is often referred to as a clicky-clicky, draggy-droppy interface. The way you visualize your data is you select the visualization you want from the Visualizations pane. This will place the visualization on the reporting surface. Then, you add the columns you want to visualize.
If you want to visualize Gross Revenue by State Name and Product Item Group as a stacked bar chart, you can start by selecting the stacked bar chart visual from the Visualizations pane.
Figure 9.5 – Adding a stacked bar chart
This will place an empty stacked bar chart visualization on the reporting surface.
Figure 9.6 – Empty stacked bar chart added to report canvas
You then add the field you want to visualize to the values area. These options will change depending on the visualization you have chosen.
Figure 9.7 – Adding data fields to the stacked bar chart visual
Then, you will end up with the same visualization you saw in Figure 9.2. Power BI makes it easy and quick to visualize your data and tell your data story.
Now that we have learned how to add visualization items to reports, let’s learn how to choose the appropriate visualization for any report.