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Choosing the Right Chart
Picking a chart is one of the easiest ways to make or break a dashboard. You can have clean data and a nice layout, but if the chart type is wrong, the insight gets lost – or at least misunderstood.
The goal is not to use fancy visuals. The goal is to make the data easy to understand at a glance.
Common Chart Use Cases
Different questions require different chart types. Here are the most common ones you'll use in Power BI.
Comparing Values
When you want to compare numbers across categories, simple charts work best. Good options:
- Bar charts
- Column charts
Examples:
- Sales by region
- Customers by plan type
- Revenue by product
Bar charts are usually easier to read when you have long category names.
Showing Trends Over Time
When time is involved, you almost always want a line chart. Good options:
- Line charts
- Area charts
Examples:
- Monthly sales
- Daily website traffic
- Year-over-year growth
I've seen people use bar charts for time series, but it can get very congested with larger date ranges. I personally don't use them for time series at all.
Showing Parts of a Whole
Use these when you want to show how something breaks down into pieces. Good options:
- Stacked bar charts
- Stacked column charts
Use pie or donut charts sparingly. They're best for very simple comparisons with only a few categories.
If your pie chart needs a legend, it probably should not be a pie chart.
Showing Relationships
When you want to see how two numbers move together, use charts designed for comparison. Good options:
- Scatter plots
- Bubble charts
Examples:
- Price vs. sales volume
- Marketing spend vs. conversions
These charts are great for spotting patterns and outliers.
Assignment
Let's create a CEO Dashboard that applies some of these "dashboard best practices." For now, let's just pick a theme and get the right charts and components on there.
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On the X-axis, use the
datehierarchy and keep Year, Quarter, and Month, but remove Day.
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Save the project and, from the course directory, submit the CLI tests.