Welcome back to another episode of This Week In Data! If you missed our previous episodes, you can watch them here. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing some data visualization best practices
Data visualization is a hot topic right now, particularly because of the capabilities of Power BI and the release of SSRS 2016 Mobile Reports. Your data is an important asset that is often haphazardly thrown on a report. Using data visualization practices is a bit of an art form that when done correctly can more effectively communicate your most important asset to your business. In this episode, Adam and Devin discuss how to get started in your design, how much information to include in your reports, and things you should avoid when building your reports. We’ll give you a hint on what to avoid – say goodbye to pie charts.
In this module you will learn how to use the Sunburst chart Power BI Custom Visual. The Sunburst chart is similar to the standard donut chart but allows you to show multiple level at once, which is great when presenting hierarchical data.
This shows a Sunburst chart with a hierarchy of Group, Country and Region displayed by quantity sold.
Under the Format paintbrush there isn’t much available to customize the appearance of the Sunburst chart.
The one section specific to the Sunburst that you have available is found under the Group section.
By changing the Show Selected property you are able to turn on or off the label that appears in the middle of the chart when you select a slice of the Sunburst chart. This property is turned on by default.
This shows a Sunburst chart with the Show Selected property turned on. The text United States in the middle of the chart is an example of how this property displays.
In addition to these properties you have a set of settings that appears on every visual to adjust the background color, add a border around the visual and lock the aspect ratio.
Find Out More
You will always be able to find this video module and advanced viewing of future modules on the Pragmatic Works On Demand Training platform. Click here to learn more about this training platform that includes 25+ courses.
Catch up on all the Power BI Custom Visuals blog posts here.
In this module you will learn how to use the Bubble chart Power BI Custom Visual. The Bubble chart allows you to show the value of categories proportionally represented by the size of the bubble.
Each category is defined as a bubble on the visual.
The size of the bubble is defined by a measure.
The Bubble chart does allow for cross filtering. Meaning you can click on a bubble in the chart and it will filter other report items
This shows a Bubble chart with Genre as the category and the size of the bubbles representing the revenue they have earned.
Under the Format paintbrush there isn’t much available to customize the appearance of the Bubble chart.
The one section specific to the Bubble that you have available is found under the Label section.
By changing the Fill property you are able change the color of of the text shown inside of each bubble
In addition to these properties you have a set of settings that appears on every visual to adjust the background color, add a border around the visual and lock the aspect ratio.
Find Out More
You will always be able to find this video module and advanced viewing of future modules on the Pragmatic Works On Demand Training platform. Click here to learn more about this training platform that includes 20+ courses.
Catch up on all the Power BI Custom Visuals blog posts here.
Welcome back to another episode of This Week In Data! If you missed our previous episodes, you can watch them here. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing how Slack can improve your company’s internal communication.
Over the past year, the Pragmatic Works team has been successfully using Slack for internal communications. As we all know, our email inboxes have become increasing cluttered and it can be difficult to take notice of important news and updates from your company. Slack’s goal is to end email and allow you to easily communicate with your coworkers. Adam and Devin talk about Slack’s enhanced capabilities, how Pragmatic Works uses it to gain feedback and much more!
Welcome back to another episode of This Week In Data! If you missed our previous episodes, you can watch them here. In this week’s episode, we’re answering the question, “What is the Internet of Things?”
Most of you have probably been hearing about Internet of Things (IoT) and are curious as to what it is. In short, Internet of Things is the thought that anything with power can be put on the internet. Fitbit is a great example of IoT but you probably want to know how IoT relates to your business. Adam and Devin discuss the importance of IoT, how it’s evolving and how you can use it in your business environment.
In this module you will learn how to use the Table Heatmap Power BI Custom Visual. The Table Heatmap has the look and feel of a pivot table or matrix report. However, instead of seeing traditional values in the table you actually see colors that represent your values instead.
In the Table Heatmap the color of the boxes is determined by the value in your measure.
Only 1 category field can be used, which will dynamically generate the number of columns based on the number of distinct values your field has.
The number and types of colors can be changed using some of the settings we’ll discuss below.
This shows a Table Heatmap with Month as the category column and individual fields 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 in the Y axis.
Under the Format paintbrush there isn’t much available to customize the appearance of the Table Heatmap.
The one section specific to the Table Heatmap that you have available is found under the General section.
By changing the Colorbrewer property you are able to swap out the color palette being used
You can also use the Buckets setting to increase/decrease the number of colors that are used in the color palette you’ve selected.
There are many color palettes that you can use in the Colorbrewer property but unfortunately they’re not well documented. Here’s a list of values that you could use in this property:
YlGn,
YlGnBu,
GnBu,
BuGn,
PuBuGn,
PuBu,
BuPu,
RdPu,
PuRd,
OrRd,
YlOrRd,
YlOrBr,
Purples, Blues, Greens, Oranges, Reds, Greys,
PuOr,
BrBG,
PRGn,
PiYG,
RdBu,
RdGy,
RdYlBu,
Spectral, RdYlGn,
Paired, Pastel1, Set1, Set2, Set
Experiment with these and see which makes most sense for your solution
In addition to these properties you have a set of settings that appears on every visual to adjust the background color, add a border around the visual and lock the aspect ratio.
Find Out More
You will always be able to find this video module and advanced viewing of future modules on the Pragmatic Works On Demand Training platform. Click here to learn more about this training platform that includes 20+ courses.
Catch up on all the Power BI Custom Visuals blog posts here.
For some, knowing when and how to ask for help can be a major challenge. It’s a humbling moment but the consequences of not asking for help can in some cases cost you your job. There are many great resources available in the tech community to get help such as forums, user groups and social media. These resources are often full of insight into a variety of topics and scenarios. Most likely, you’ll have some great people working right next to you that have encountered the same or similar issues in the past and have helpful tips to overcome them. For more complex problems, it may be beneficial for you to bring in outside consulting help.
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