Lesson 90 How to Create Interactive Power BI Dashboards

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A great Power BI dashboard is more than just charts and graphs—it should be interactive, insightful, and user-friendly. In this blog, you’ll learn:

• ✔ How to design an interactive Power BI dashboard
• ✔ Best Power BI visuals for effective storytelling
• ✔ How to add slicers, filters, drill-throughs, and tooltips
• ✔ Power BI dashboard best practices for business users

Let’s get started! 🚀

1️⃣ Planning Your Power BI Dashboard

Before jumping into Power BI, follow these steps:

• 📌 Define the goal – What insights should users get?
• 📌 Understand your audience – Who will use the dashboard?
• 📌 Choose relevant KPIs – Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs).
• 📌 Keep it simple – Avoid cluttered visuals and too much text.

🛠 Example Use Case: A sales team needs a dashboard to track revenue, sales trends, and top-performing products.

2️⃣ Choosing the Right Visuals

Power BI offers a variety of visuals to display data effectively. Here are some commonly used ones:

• ✅ Bar Charts – Best for comparing categories (e.g., sales by region)
• ✅ Line Charts – Ideal for trend analysis (e.g., revenue over time)
• ✅ Pie Charts – Show proportions (e.g., market share by product)
• ✅ Tables & Matrices – Best for detailed breakdowns (e.g., product sales report)
• ✅ Cards – Display key metrics (e.g., total revenue, profit margin)
• ✅ Maps – Great for geographic insights (e.g., sales by city)
• ✅ Funnel Charts – Track sales conversion rates

🛠 Example: A CEO dashboard might use line charts for sales trends and cards for revenue and profit.

3️⃣ Adding Interactivity with Slicers and Filters

Interactivity is key to a dynamic Power BI dashboard. Here’s how to do it:

🔹 Adding a Slicer (Dropdown Selection)

Steps:

1. Click "Insert" > "Slicer"
2. Choose a field (e.g., Product Category)
3. Resize and place the slicer on your dashboard

✅ Now users can filter data by product category dynamically!

🔹 Using Filters (Page & Report Level)

• Page Filters – Apply to a single dashboard page
• Report Filters – Apply across the entire report

🛠 Example: A sales manager filters the dashboard to view only last quarter’s data.

4️⃣ Implementing Drill-Through for Detailed Insights

🔍 Drill-through lets users click on a data point and see more details.

🔹 How to Add Drill-Through in Power BI

1. Create a new page (e.g., "Product Sales Details").
2. Add a table or visual with details.
3. In the Visualizations pane, add a drill-through field (e.g., Product Name).

✅ Now, when users right-click a product, they can “Drill-through” to see detailed sales.

🛠 Example: A retail analyst clicks on "Laptops" in a sales report and drills down to see sales by brand.

5️⃣ Enhancing User Experience with Tooltips

📊 Tooltips show extra information when users hover over a visual.

🔹 How to Add Custom Tooltips in Power BI

• Create a new page and set it as "Tooltip" under Page Information.
• Add a card or visual (e.g., profit margin).
• Assign the tooltip page to a visual in Report Page Tooltips.

✅ Now, when users hover over a bar chart, they see detailed insights in the tooltip.

🛠 Example: A financial analyst hovers over a sales bar and sees profit margins by region.

6️⃣ Power BI Dashboard Design Best Practices

• ✔ Keep it clean and simple – Avoid overcrowding visuals
• ✔ Use a consistent color scheme – Make key metrics stand out
• ✔ Highlight important KPIs – Place key numbers at the top
• ✔ Use proper alignment – Organize visuals logically
• ✔ Enable responsiveness – Ensure dashboards adjust to screen sizes

🚀 A well-designed dashboard improves user experience and decision-making!

7️⃣ Summary – Creating an Interactive Power BI Dashboard

• ✔ Plan your dashboard – Define goals, KPIs, and audience
• ✔ Choose the right visuals – Bar charts, line graphs, tables, and maps
• ✔ Add slicers and filters – Let users explore the data dynamically
• ✔ Use drill-through and tooltips – Provide deeper insights
• ✔ Follow dashboard design best practices – Keep it clean, simple, and effective

🔔 Coming up next:

• ✔ Power BI Row-Level Security (RLS) Best Practices
• ✔ Power BI Embedded Analytics – How to Integrate with Apps
• ✔ Power BI for Sales & Marketing Analytics

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