Visualizing KPI data

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are measurable values that demonstrate how well a company is achieving a certain objective. Power BI has several options to measure the progress being made towards a goal for operational processes. The strength of a KPI visual lies in its simplicity. It displays a single value and its progress toward a specific goal.

Create a new report page called KPI Data and take a closer look at the gauge and KPI visuals.

Gauge

The Gauge visual displays a single value within a circular arc and its progress toward a specified goal or target value. The Target value is represented by a line within the arc. With the current dataset there is not a measure that can be used to illustrate an accurate business goal, so one will have to be created. Before setting up this visual, a new calculated measure will need to be created.

The gauge will be using the Total Sales field as the Value field. The target will be 10% more than the previous year's...

Visualizing data using cards

The ways for Power BI to get detailed data into the hands of a user are vast. Tables, matrices, bar chats, and combo charts all provide large quantities of data to users in a single visual. Sometimes, like a KPI, users just need to see a number. When the trend or target components of a KPI are not required, turn to the Card visualization. The Card is the most basic of visuals displaying only a single value. If slightly more detail is necessary, but required at a group level, look to the Multi-row card.

Before moving on, create a new report page called Card Data.

Card

The Card is useful for highlighting a series of related metrics in a dashboard, displaying the most recent or oldest date in a dataset, and calling out important numbers for a detailed report. Some formatting options are available to change the font size or color, but at its core, the card visual just displays a single value.

Let's look at setting up a Card:

1. Ensure no other visuals are...

Visualizing geographical data

One of the most exciting ways to visualize data in Power BI is through the various maps. All the maps serve the same purpose, to illustrate data in relation to locations around the world, but there are some small differences between each of them. All of the maps, except the Shape map, have the option to visualize latitude and longitude coordinates, which will be the best way to ensure the appropriate location is being displayed. The reason for this is because the information provided to the visual will be sent to Azure Maps to verify the positioning on the map. If you do not provide enough detail, then Azure may not return the desired results. For example, if you were to provide the map visual with a field that contains only the city name, that could result in some confusion because there may be multiple cities with that name in multiple states, provinces, or even countries. In these scenarios, you will either want to supply some sort of geo-hierarchy to...

Natural language

Not all data is as straight forward as showing the sales amount by month. Often, when a report is being developed you may not know all the different visualizations a user would like to see. While Power BI has great flexibility thanks to built-in cross-filtering, drilldown, and the ability to see data behind a visual, it will never be able to cover all possible reporting scenarios. One of the most powerful ways to enable self-service functionality in Power BI is using the Q&A visual. The Q&A feature is often described as a search engine for your data.

The Q&A visual allows users to simply ask a question in natural language and receive an answer in the form of a pre-built visual. This is great for data exploration as well thanks to search suggestions and autocomplete functionality. The suggestions are only as good as the data model you have built. Without specific domain knowledge, Power BI makes suggestions for additional terms people may search for. In the...

Visuals from analytics

Up to this point all the visuals have been focused on visualizing the data in the data model. There are a couple of visuals that go one step further and provide information about the data that are not easily gained by a human looking at a report. These visuals leverage machine learning to provide actionable insight and allow the use of additional programming languages in Power BI.

Two of the most common programming languages in use today are R and Python. Power BI offers a built-in visual for each of these languages with an easy interface for bridging the gap between the Power BI data model and the programming language surface. Each of these requires a local installation for Power BI to use for processing. Simply add the fields you would like to use in your code to the Values bucket for the visual and reference them by name in your code. A few lines of sample code are generated to show the proper way to reference the fields as well. Adding the R or Python visual...

Power BI custom visuals

Throughout this chapter, you have seen many different visuals and how they work with specific types of data. Although there are many options readily available with Power BI, you have access to 100+ more visuals from Microsoft AppSource right at your fingertips. Users can either navigate to AppSource via any web browser, or while inside of Power BI Desktop you can select the From AppSource option in the Home ribbon's More Visuals menu.

Once you select this option, a menu will appear where you can simply search the entire collection of custom visuals available. Once you have found a visual that you would like to use, just click the Add button shown in yellow. Users can also download the visualization file, which can be imported into Power BI by using the From my files option, which is also in the Home ribbon's More Visuals menu. It is important to understand that when you select a custom visual, it saves as part of the Power BI report file and doesn&apos...

Data visualization tips and tricks

You have created six different report pages filled with different visuals and investigated different configuration options for each of them. That being said, you have barely scratched the surface of all the features that are available to you, and with the very quick update cycle Power BI has, that list of features will keep growing. This final section will explore a couple of features that are not exclusive to just one visual, but can really help out when designing a report. It is highly recommended to watch the monthly videos that the Power BI team produces alongside the actual product update. This way, you can know exactly what is new and how to use it.

Changing visuals

Throughout this chapter the workflow has been the same: add a blank visual then add fields. Often this will work in a real-world development environment as well. However, there are times when you will not know what the best visual is for your data. It is not uncommon to create a bar...