Interactivity

Interactivity is what separates static reports from real dashboards. Instead of just looking at data, users can click, filter, and explore on their own.

The goal is not to add as much interactivity as possible, but to add usefulness to the dashboard.

A good interactive dashboard lets someone answer follow-up questions without leaving the dashboard.

Slicers

Slicers let users filter data without touching the underlying model. Common uses:

Date ranges
Regions
Product categories

Slicers should be easy to find and clearly labeled. If a slicer exists, it should have a clear purpose.

Cross Filtering and Highlighting

Power BI visuals interact with each other by default. When a user clicks one visual:

Other visuals filter or highlight automatically
Patterns and relationships become easier to spot

This is one of the most powerful features of Power BI and often requires no extra setup.

Drill Down and Drill Through

Drill features allow users to move between levels of detail. Drill down is useful for moving from:

Year to month to day
Category to subcategory

Drill through lets users right-click a data point and navigate to a detailed page focused on that item.

Drill features are great, but only if users know they exist.

Tooltips

Tooltips show extra information when users hover over a visual. They're useful for:

Adding context without cluttering the dashboard
Showing supporting metrics
Providing definitions or explanations

Custom report page tooltips can add a lot of value when used carefully.

Assignment

Let's add slicers to the Dashboard page so users can filter the data interactively.

Insert two Slicer visuals in the upper right corner where we left room.
Drag dates[date] to the Field of the first (top) Slicer.
Power BI should automatically display this as a date range slicer.

Date slicers with the "Between" style let users select a custom date range, which is great for exploring trends.
Drag customers[customer_region] to the Field of the second (bottom) Slicer.
Format the region slicer: Format → Slicer settings → Options → Style → Tile

The "Tile" style makes region selection feel more like buttons, which is easier for users to understand at a glance.
Test the interactivity: click on a region tile and watch the other visuals update.
For consistency, add a visual border to the slicers as well.

Save the project and, from the course directory, submit the CLI tests.