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Power BI design techniques

Each article takes one effect from a real report and rebuilds it in Power BI Desktop: why the built-in visuals fall short, how the trick works, the DAX and the settings to reproduce it, and the traps we hit on the way. No custom visual, unless we say so.

13 articles

The 44 segments of the Aurum Jet speed gauge laid out in a row, each with its own start time, from begin 0.00s to begin 1.16sDesign techniques24 October 20269 min read

A gauge that fills segment by segment: staggered SVG animations in Power BI

Gauges that fill segment by segment, bars that rise one after another, lists that appear row by row: one DAX pattern gives each SVG element its own start time.AnimationSVG and DAX visualsGold arcs between European airports over a land made of dots, the network of routes that one DAX measure draws in Aurum JetDesign techniques24 October 202610 min read

A route map drawn by a DAX measure: arcs, airports and a map that frames itself

No map visual: one SVG measure projects airports, draws the period's routes as arcs weighted by traffic, labels the busiest without overlap and reframes itself.MapsSVG and DAX visualsOne Aurum Jet card cut in two, Light on the left and Dark on the right, with the colour measures that switch itDesign techniques24 October 202610 min read

Light and Dark mode in Power BI: what follows a measure, and what doesn't

A real Light and Dark switch with one slicer and colour measures, and the four things Power BI won't recolour from a measure, with the fix for each one.Page design and themingSlicers and navigationA dashed route from PAR to NCE with a gold jet stopped at 60 % of its length, next to the attribute that does it: keyPoints 0;0.600Design techniques24 October 20269 min read

The jet that stops where the flight is: SVG motion in a Power BI measure

Make a jet fly along its route and stop at the share of the flight already flown, with SVG animateMotion written by a DAX measure, in a native card.AnimationSVG and DAX visualsMapsThe Production Line Efficiency report: a month picker at the top right drives four KPI cards and a ten-month trendDesign techniques22 October 20269 min read

A Power BI month picker for every KPI: the disconnected table

One month picker drives four KPI cards, their change on the previous month and a ten-month trend, without filtering the page. A disconnected table and three measures.Slicers and navigationThe Employee Retention report with its sidebar open over the page, next to the two bookmark settings that make it work: Selected visuals and Data offDesign techniques22 October 20269 min read

A collapsible sidebar in Power BI: bookmarks that only touch a few visuals

A sidebar that opens and closes, a chart that turns into a map, and not one filter reset. Two bookmark settings, Selected visuals and Data off, do all of it.Slicers and navigationThe Overview page background with its first card and notch measured, next to the layout JSON that draws themDesign techniques14 October 20269 min read

Design the page, not the visuals: Power BI page backgrounds

Shadows, gradients, a notch and photos drawn into one 2x image under transparent visuals: how Colis Pro designs each Power BI page, with or without code.Page design and themingThe DAX that encodes % before # in an SVG data URI, next to a ring that is lost when only # is encoded and drawn when % is encoded firstDesign techniques14 October 20269 min read

SVG measures in Power BI cards: rings, pills and a timeline

Draw rings, status pills, gauges and a shipment timeline with DAX, as SVG in a card's image, and avoid the encoding trap that wipes out every colour.SVG and DAX visualsThe Colis Pro activity list: four card-like rows that are really a table with one SVG image column, next to its formatting propertiesDesign techniques14 October 20269 min read

Power BI table rows as cards: one SVG measure per row

A native table row can't have rounded corners or a highlight. One DAX measure draws an SVG tile per row, and the table shows only that image column.SVG and DAX visualsA map of France drawn as a scatter chart: the plot area is the map image, bounded by longitude -8.2 to 11.9 and latitude 41.0 to 51.5, with city bubbles in goldDesign techniques14 October 20269 min read

A Power BI map without Azure Maps: a scatter chart over an image

Replace Azure Maps with a native scatter chart: longitude on X, latitude on Y, axes bounded to a map image set as the plot area background.MapsAn exploded view of a report page: the background image at the bottom, cards, slicers and buttons in the middle, charts and the table on topDesign techniques14 October 20267 min read

347 visuals, only 9 charts: anatomy of a designed Power BI report

An X-ray of a designed Power BI report: 347 visuals, 167 of them cards and only 9 charts. Where the design of a Power BI report really lives, region by region.Page design and themingSVG and DAX visualsReport labels in French next to their English versions, with an FR / EN switch and the DAX measure that picks the languageDesign techniques14 October 20269 min read

A bilingual Power BI report with one slicer

Switch a whole Power BI report between French and English with one slicer: a language table, one measure per text, FORMAT with a culture, and one row per language for chart categories.Slicers and navigationSix page thumbnails wired to one gold 95 % setting in the Colis Pro settings panelDesign techniques14 October 20268 min read

Let users set the thresholds: a settings panel in Power BI

Move thresholds out of DAX and into a settings panel: a parameter table, one measure with a default, a synced slicer and a hidden page. The whole report follows.Slicers and navigation

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