Creating a heatmap in Power BI using a matrix visual
EASY POWER BI HEATMAP CREATION
Using a heatmap as a visualization in Power BI can be a great way to gain insights into peak times. For example, in the screenshot, you can see the busiest hours of a business alongside the less busy hours. With this information, you could, for instance, schedule additional employees during peak hours or ensure that more stock is available when needed.
Now, imagine incorporating this type of visual into your dashboard. I created a Restaurant Sales Dashboard in Power BI that showcases exactly how to do this.
One of the easiest ways to create a heatmap in Power BI is by using the matrix visual combined with conditional formatting. The matrix visual is a standard visual provided by Power BI, so there’s no need to download any custom visuals.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the simple steps to create a heatmap like this, making it easier to highlight data trends and insights. You’ll quickly see how this tool can add value to your reports by visualizing important patterns such as peak sales times, making your data more actionable.
How to create a Power BI heatmap?
Let’s start with the basics, you need the following:
- 1 row (in this example: month)
- 1 column (in this example: time of day)
- 1 value (in this example: pizzas ordered, but obviously, it could be any quantity!)
Power BI heatmap - Conditional formatting
Putting the values in the matrix visual without any conditional formatting will look like the example in the screenshot.
This already looks nice, you can use conditional formatting and create a heatmap to make it more readable. That way, the values that are most interesting to you will pop out easily.
Just right-click on the value in the formatting pane (the quantity in this example) and click on conditional formatting. I did conditional formatting for the background color (and chose a gradient) and the font (because otherwise, it is tough to read a value when you use a gradient as the background color).
Screenshot of the conditional formatting configuration from the example
How to use a Power BI heatmap in a dashboard?
I use the heatmap to visualize data such as busy times at a restaurant/office/store, progress of team members/employees, and stock of a product.
You can find an example dashboard here.
