Are you looking to enhance the appearance of your Power BI dashboards? This blog post about Power BI UI design offers valuable insights! Just kidding-I'm sure they look great already, but let’s explore how to enhance their visual appeal!
Before creating stunning dashboards, we need to grasp some fundamental principles of Power BI UI design. Let’s go over them before we start building your visually appealing dashboards!
With over 1000 dashboards designed for more than 600 international clients, our expertise informs the Power BI UI design principles we'll discuss in this article.
Understanding How Users Read Power BI Reports
Firstly, it’s essential to know how your dashboard users read the reports. Viewers typically scan Power BI dashboards in a zigzag manner, similar to how they would read a book. They move from the left to the right, finishing one line before shifting to the next. Thus, it's important to maintain a logical flow between the first and second lines, usually achieved by drilling down as users navigate from the top left to the bottom right.
Sections of a Power BI Dashboard
Secondly, breaking your dashboard into sections greatly enhances readability. Common sections include:
Filter menu
Navigation menu
A row of cards
A block of data visualizations
Consider the Power BI UI design example below that includes all these sections. Planning where to position these sections on your canvas is crucial. It's also important to consider how to further explore your data with each visual to create user-friendly dashboards.
Selecting a Color Scheme
Thirdly, choosing a suitable color scheme is vital for your Power BI UI design. A good color palette includes a color for negative insights, like red or orange, a neutral color such as blue, and a shade for positive insights, like green.
For instance, a beneficial default color scheme in Power BI is "City Park." Below is a custom theme designed for one of my clients, which aligns with their brand colors while still encompassing the elements of an effective color scheme:
Orange for negative findings
Green for positive findings
Blue is a neutral tone
Using colors thoughtfully in your Power BI UI design significantly aids in interpretable insights. For example, if revenue is a critical metric, consistently using green throughout the report will help users connect the color with the metric. Consequently, it will take them less time to comprehend your reports.
Choosing the Right Data Visualization Type
Fourthly, understanding how to select the appropriate data visualization is a significant part of Power BI UI design and a substantial topic on its own. I shared insights about this in a previous blog post, which I encourage you to check out!
Eliminating Clutter
Fifthly, strive to minimize clutter within your visualizations. Clutter includes:
Redundant text that muddies your charts
Too many colors within a single visual making it hard to read
Excessive axis titles-if the X-axis clearly represents dates, for example, there's no need for an axis title
Gridlines and axes are unnecessary when data labels are present
Now, look at the chart below where gridlines and the Y-axis have been removed. No information has been lost, yet the chart appears much cleaner.
Consideration of decimal points is also critical as they may complicate readability without adding valuable information. Ask yourself if your Power BI UI design truly requires these details. If your revenue is at $150,678.56, do you need to account for those 56 cents? Likely not, so it's best to remove them. However, if acquiring a customer costs $1.25, every cent matters, so retaining it may be wise.
Strive for Clarity
Your goal should be to maintain minimalism when conveying insights to the users of your dashboard. Picture yourself in the shoes of a dashboard user. If someone tries to explain your business performance in a lengthy monologue, it can be overwhelming to extract the critical points. This is why clear and concise communication through your Power BI UI design is imperative.
Importance of Consistency
Consistently placing your visuals across the canvas is crucial. For instance, in our financial analysis case study, the arrangement of cards, filters, and bar charts remains uniform across various pages. This consistency helps dashboard users know precisely where to look for specific insights.
Utilizing Blank Space Wisely
Finally, let’s discuss the effective use of blank space, which can serve both beneficial and detrimental roles in your Power BI UI design. Some blank space is helpful since it reduces clutter on your dashboard.
For example, the dashboard below utilizes space between visuals to employ shadow effects, enhancing its cleanliness.
However, excessive blank space can make the data storytelling appear disorganized. Take a look at this example found online; the empty space in the bottom right could be better utilized to enlarge visuals, making them easier to read or to include additional analysis.
Practice Your Power BI UI Design Skills
Now that you understand the theory behind efficient Power BI UI design, let’s apply these principles to create an attractive dashboard from scratch! Follow along with this video tutorial to craft a beautiful dashboard together! Download the source Power BI file here to begin!
