Vision to Design: Creating a Power BI Dashboard
Creating a Power BI Dashboard seems easy, especially because of the easy drag-and-drop experience. Unfortunately, this often leads to a disappointing experience when the end results are not what the user expects. Just putting numbers and visuals on a canvas is not good enough to actually create insights and use the information to take action.
An inconsistent Power BI design can lead to dashboards that go unused, which is a waste of the time and effort spent collecting, cleaning, testing data, and building the dashboard.
This article outlines actionable steps to create effective Power BI dashboards. However, even following these steps doesn’t guarantee success. There’s no universal formula for a perfect dashboard because the same data can be visualized differently depending on the purpose and audience. Tailoring the design to fit the specific needs of your audience is key to creating a truly valuable dashboard.
Step 1 - Who is your audience?
Often, the end-user is not involved in the design process. This is because the focus is on the business requirements and time is spent on identifying, for example, the definitions of KPIs. The end-user, however, is the one who will ultimately work with the dashboard and make decisions based on the data.
To find out what the end-user is looking for, ask the following questions:
- Who are the end-users? Is this an employee, multiple teams, or the entire company?
- What is the Power BI experience?
- How will the end-users interact with the dashboards? On a laptop, tablet, mobile, TV?
- What questions do we want to answer? What actions do the end-users want to take based on the information?
Step 2 - Which information do you really need?
Not all available information is necessary for effective decision-making. In fact, companies often believe they need endless data—an overwhelming amount of it, sliced and diced in countless ways—to make informed decisions.
Why Does This Happen?
- Habitual Thinking: Often, people are just used to accessing everything stored in their systems, so they assume Power BI should be the same way. It’s a habit that’s hard to break, even though not all that data is relevant or needed.
- Lack of Data Strategy: Another issue is a lack of clarity on which data actually supports decision-making. Without this focus, the default becomes to include everything, which leads to cluttered and less effective dashboards.
The Solution: Focused Discussions
The key to designing an effective Power BI dashboard starts with having focused conversations. This means getting clear on what’s truly important to the business. A simple strategy session where you map out the current state and identify the essential data can go a long way.
Questions you can ask to identify important information
- What decisions do we want to make with this dashboard?
- What actions will we take based on the information from the dashboard?
- When I open the dashboard in the morning, I am looking for this information: _____ because I want to take these follow-up steps: _____.
- When I present the results during the weekly meeting, I use graph _____ to show _____.
You can not only ask these questions for a new dashboard but also when you are working on a makeover!
Step 3 - Templates, mock-ups and the final design
After you figure out what information is necessary to make decisions and actions, it is time to visualize the data.
But how do you start?
- Choose a color scheme. This color scheme will be used throughout the dashboard. If a specific corporate style is important, look for matching colors.
Helpful websites for this are: - Create a mock-up. A mock-up is a sketch of the final dashboard. You can make this sketch online or with pen and paper. The most important thing is to see how the dashboard looks visually without having to build the entire dashboard in advance.
- Use a template. If there is more than one Power BI dashboard, it is recommended to use templates. Templates, for example, already have a color scheme and a (semi) fixed layout. This way, end users know exactly what to expect, such as information and filters that always appear in the same place.