Power-Bi-Report-Design-Best-Practices

Report Page Layout:
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Header: Title, KPIs, Key Metrics    │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Main Content Area                   │
│ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │
│ │  Primary    │ │  Supporting     │ │
│ │  Visual     │ │  Visuals        │ │
│ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Footer: Filters, Navigation, Notes  │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Bar/Column Charts:
✅ Comparing categories or entities
✅ Ranking items by value
✅ Showing changes over discrete time periods
✅ When category names are long (use horizontal bars)

Best Practices:
- Start axis at zero for accurate comparison
- Sort categories by value for ranking
- Use consistent colors within category groups
- Limit to 7-10 categories for readability

Example Use Cases:
- Sales by product category
- Revenue by region  
- Employee count by department
- Customer satisfaction by service type

Line Charts:
✅ Showing trends over continuous time periods
✅ Comparing multiple metrics over time
✅ Identifying patterns, seasonality, cycles
✅ Forecasting and projection scenarios

Best Practices:
- Use consistent time intervals
- Start Y-axis at zero when showing absolute values
- Use different line styles for multiple series
- Include data point markers for sparse data

Example Use Cases:
- Monthly sales trends
- Website traffic over time
- Stock price movements
- Performance metrics tracking

Pie/Donut Charts:
✅ Parts-of-whole relationships
✅ Maximum 5-7 categories
✅ When percentages are more important than absolute values
✅ Simple composition scenarios

Limitations:
❌ Difficult to compare similar-sized segments
❌ Not suitable for many categories
❌ Hard to show changes over time

Alternative: Use stacked bar charts for better readability

Example Use Cases:
- Market share by competitor
- Budget allocation by category
- Customer segments by type

Stacked Charts:
✅ Showing composition and total simultaneously
✅ Comparing composition across categories
✅ Multiple sub-categories within main categories
✅ When you need both part and whole perspective

Types:
- 100% Stacked: Focus on proportions
- Regular Stacked: Show both absolute and relative values
- Clustered: Compare sub-categories side-by-side

Example Use Cases:
- Sales by product category and region
- Revenue breakdown by service type over time
- Employee distribution by department and level

Scatter Plots:
✅ Correlation between two continuous variables
✅ Outlier identification
✅ Clustering analysis
✅ Performance quadrant analysis

Best Practices:
- Use size for third dimension (bubble chart)
- Apply color coding for categories
- Include trend lines when appropriate
- Label outliers and key points

Example Use Cases:
- Sales vs. marketing spend by product
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