PBI

The Definitive Guide to Power BI Visuals

An interactive infographic designed to transform raw data into clear, compelling, and actionable data narratives by choosing the right visual for the story.

🎯 Choose Your Visual Type

📊

Comparison

Compare values across categories

🥧

Distribution

Show parts of a whole

📈

Trends

Track changes over time

📊 Comparison & Ranking Visuals

Bar and column charts are foundational for comparing data across categories. Bar charts are superior for long category names, while column charts excel with chronological data.

Bar Chart: Ideal for Long Labels

The horizontal orientation provides ample space for readable category labels, preventing truncation or awkward angling.

Column Chart: Best for Timelines

Vertical bars naturally align with a time progression from left to right, effectively representing a historical timeline.

🥧 Distribution & Part-to-Whole Visuals

These visuals help show how individual parts contribute to the whole, making it easy to identify proportions and relative sizes.

Pie Chart: Simple Proportions

Best for showing 3-5 categories where the relationship between parts and whole is important.

Donut Chart: Focus on Total

Similar to pie charts but with space in the center to highlight the total value or key metric.

📈 Trend Analysis Visuals

Line charts and area charts excel at showing patterns, trends, and changes over continuous periods like time.

Line Chart: Track Changes

Perfect for showing trends over time and comparing multiple series on the same timeline.

Area Chart: Cumulative Impact

Shows both trend and magnitude, ideal for displaying cumulative values or stacked categories over time.

💎 KPI & Key Metrics

Sometimes the most powerful visual is the simplest - a single number that tells the whole story.

$2.4M

Total Revenue

↗ +12% vs last month

94.2%

Customer Satisfaction

↗ +2.1% vs last quarter

1,847

New Customers

↗ +8% vs last month

✨ Power BI Visual Best Practices

📋 Do's

• • Keep it simple - less is more
• • Use consistent colors across dashboards
• • Start y-axis at zero for bar/column charts
• • Label axes clearly and concisely
• • Use tooltips for additional context
• • Test on different screen sizes

🚫 Don'ts

• • Don't use 3D effects unnecessarily
• • Avoid too many colors in one visual
• • Don't truncate y-axis to exaggerate differences
• • Avoid pie charts with too many slices
• • Don't clutter with unnecessary gridlines
• • Avoid misleading dual y-axes

🌳 Visual Selection Decision Tree

What story do you want to tell?

Compare Values

Bar Chart

Column Chart

Clustered Chart

Show Distribution

Pie Chart

Donut Chart

Treemap

Track Trends

Line Chart

Area Chart

Combo Chart

Created with ❤️ for better data storytelling