KPI Cards, Data Visualization and Interactive Dashboards

KPI Cards

A KPI (key performance indicator) is a number that shows whether the business is meeting a goal. KPIs go at the top of a dashboard, where people look first.

• The Card visual shows one big number, such as Total Sales. The newer card visual can show several measures side by side.
• The KPI visual shows a value, a target and a trend, coloring the number green or red depending on whether the target was met. It needs a value (for example Total Sales), a trend axis (Month) and a target (a Sales Target measure).
• The Gauge visual shows progress toward a target on a dial.

Good KPI cards have a clear label, sensible units (show $1.2M, not 1,234,567.89) and, where possible, a comparison: versus target, versus last month or versus last year.

Data Visualization

Pick the chart from the question you are answering:

Formatting basics (the paintbrush icon in Visualizations): give each visual a title that states its point, turn on data labels when there are only a few bars, sort bars by value, use one highlight color and grey for the rest, and remove anything that does not help the reader.

Conditional formatting in tables and matrices (color scales, data bars, icons) helps important values stand out.

Interactive Dashboards

Power BI reports are interactive by default. Learn these features:

• Cross-filtering: clicking a bar in one visual filters the others on the page. Change this with Format > Edit interactions.
• Slicers: on-page filter controls (list, drop-down, date range). Add a Slicer visual and drop a field such as Region or Date into it. Use View > Sync slicers to make one slicer work on several pages.
• Drill-down: put several fields in an axis (Year, Quarter, Month) and use the arrows on the visual to move between levels.
• Drill-through: create a detail page (for example Product Details), add a field to its Drill-through well, and users can right-click a product anywhere and jump to its details.
• Tooltips: extra information shown on hover.
• Buttons and bookmarks: let users navigate between pages or switch views.

Layout: KPI cards across the top, the main trend chart in the middle, breakdowns below, slicers along the left or top. Keep it to one clear purpose per page.

Publishing: Home > Publish sends the report to the Power BI Service, where it can be shared and set to refresh on a schedule. Sharing with others normally requires a work or school account and a Pro or Premium license, so check with your organization.