4B. Design Power BI reports Flashcards
“Where” can you design Power BI reports?
You can design Microsoft Power BI reports in Power BI Desktop or Power BI service (web portal). Power BI mobile apps don’t support report design; they support only the report consumer experience.
Power BI Desktop is only supported on Windows operating systems.
What are the structure and objects of a report?
Structurally, a Power BI report connects to a single semantic model (semantic model), and it has at least one report page. However, it’s common that reports have multiple pages.
On each page, report objects are laid out. Report objects include:
- Visuals - Visualizations of semantic model data.
- Elements - Provide visual interest but don’t use semantic model data. Elements include text boxes, buttons, shapes, and images.
What can you do instead of duplicating a report page?
Duplicating pages can help expedite report development, especially when you’re copying a completed and polished report page. However, take care that you don’t over complicate the report design if you can accomplish a duplicated page by filtering a single page. For example, instead of creating one page for each customer, you could use a slicer on a single page to filter by customer.
At a high level, how should you structure a report?
Strive for a report design that expresses the data in a logical flow on the page and between pages. A well-designed report often provides a high-level summary on the first page with supporting detail on the following pages.
When might it be better to a several reports with one page each, instead of one report with many pages?
When you design those pages for a different audience or when you need to secure, share, or distribute them differently. The reason is because reports are a security and publication unit, and report pages belong to reports and can’t be secured or published independently of the report.
Why might you hide pages in a report?
You can hide pages when they’re not yet ready for use; they’re a work in progress. However, you might commonly hide them because you want to control how they’re accessed:
- You can provide report page navigation with buttons or by drilling through from a visual.
- It’s also possible to design a page as a tooltip, which is revealed when a report consumer hovers over a visual.
What are commonly applied page-level format settings?
- Page information
- Page size
- Page background
What matters most about report design?
That the report design effectively communicates the data to meet requirements.
How should you think about choosing what goes on the same page, and what goes on different pages?
You can begin to design a report layout by determining the number, sequence, and purpose of the pages. Make sure that you avoid combining subjects or opposing objectives on the same page. Then, design each page layout with specific report objects that are relevant to the requirements.
What are five helpful design principles to consider when designing a report?
- Placement
- Balance
- Contrast
- Proximity
- Repetition
What should you remember about placement when designing reports?
- Generally, you should place the most important information in the upper-left corner of the page and arrange the report elements from left to right and top to bottom. (For readers from some cultures, this will be different)
- Align objects
- Position related objects in logical groups
- Consider the rule of thirds
What should you remember about balance when designing reports?
Balance can be
- Symmetrical
- Asymmetrical. A good rule for achieving asymmetrical balance is using the golden ratio
What should you remember about proximity when designing reports?
- When a report page consists of multiple groups of related objects, you should use space to visually separate them.
- Related visuals are placed near one another. They are also purposefully and consistently aligned forming a clear section.
What should you remember about contrast when designing reports?
- Contrast can be used to combine two opposing objects.
- The use of contrasting colors, fonts, font properties, or lines can emphasize important objects of the report design. Use this principle to direct report consumers to where they should look or which data visual they should interact with first.
What should you remember about repetition when designing reports?
- Repetition in a report design creates association and consistency.
- Good use of repetition can help strengthen a report layout by tying related report objects together.
What are some additional principles you can use to make a report more visually appealing?
- Margins
- Object spacing
- Page size
- Visual size
- Alignment
- Colour
- Consistency
What should you remember about margins when designing reports?
- Having a consistently spaced border area frames the report objects.
- Because there isn’t a report page property to set margins, it’s up to you to lay out objects in way that results in a consistent border area.
- Margin sizes should be equal on the left and right, with possible variation on the top and bottom.
- Space across the top or bottom can show branding, titles, slicers, or other information that needs to be separated from the visuals.
What should you remember about object spacing when designing reports?
- Ensure that you provide sufficient space surrounding, or within, report objects.
- Consider using different space depth to visually separate sections of related objects.
- However, keep in mind that too much space can result in an unbalanced report layout and could draw the report consumer’s attention away from what matters.
- Moderation is key: Always strive to produce an evenly spaced and balanced report.