Microsoft Power BI Visualizations Services provide several intelligent options for organizing and visualizing your business data.

While the integrations with other tools, Data Organization, and other Business Intelligence features are quite beneficial, the visualization aspect in itself can be a game-changer for businesses. 

Microsoft Power BI Visualizations can actually be quite robust and sophisticated. With different types of data visualizations in the provision, you can fine-tune the exact metrics and display them along with deciding how you want to display them.

Visualization in Microsoft Power BI can actually be built with the exact combination of elements that you desire.

This article deals with everything you need to understand about Data Visualization, its significance, and the different types of visualizations you can choose from in Microsoft Power BI.

Let’s Understand Microsoft Power BI

  • Microsoft Power BI Services offer an easy yet efficient way to organize your data and derive comprehensive insights from it.
  • With features for easy integrations with Data Warehouses, third-party applications, and other data sources, you can combine data from various sources and convert them into interactive or visually appealing insights that can be easier to understand. 

Understanding Data Visualization and Its Importance 

  • What is Data Visualization and why is it relevant? Doesn’t having the data in the first place give a fair idea of the organization’s ongoings? Why do companies emphasize on visualizing data and what does it change? 
  • Companies often have the need to present their data along with relevant arguments for discussions on the business strategies and interactions of the organization.
  • The analysis of this data is most often not done by technical professionals, and more relevant to members involved in strategizing or fine-tuning business policies.
  • Data Visualization helps make mundane or even complex data metrics viewable by all team members in terms of metrics that they understand for the purpose of identifying hidden patterns and making predictions.
  • Hence, the use of Data Visualization is extremely important, especially for those dealing with large amounts of data.

Different Types of Visualizations in Microsoft Power BI

  • Bar & Column Charts
  • Combo Charts
  • Doughnut Charts
  • Cards (Single & Multi Records/Rows)
  • Funnel Chart
  • Gauge Chart
  • KPI Chart
  • Line Chart
  • Maps
  • Tree Maps
  • Area Charts

Building Microsoft Power BI Visualizations

The following aspects are involved in building Visualizations using Microsoft Power BI:

1. Setting up Simple Visualizations

Simple Visualizations can easily be set up by accessing the pane on the right side of the Report Canvas. You can also drag fields from the right bar to the axis to add elements for simple visualization.

2. Creating Maps

You can create numerous Shapes, Bubbles, or different kinds of maps by selecting the map option from the Visualization Pane. Here, you can drag the data and the required fields for your map. 

3. Working with Combination Charts

Combinations of Line and Column Charts can be created with Microsoft Power BI. From the chart option in the Visualizations Pane, you can choose any type of Combine Chart such as Line and Clustered Column Chart or Line and Stacked Column Chart.

4. Working with Tables

Tables in Microsoft Power BI can be added to the Report Canvas by dragging in the relevant fields you desire. You can perform sort and other filter functions for the table along with specifying the values for each metric as shown:

5. Modifying Charts Properties like Color, Legends, etc.

An interesting element in Microsoft Power BI is the easy modification of different Data Colors, Labels, Legends, and other visuals. You can do so by clicking on the Format tab and then modifying the element that you desire. Line positions, background, lock aspect, etc. can also be modified as chart properties.

6. Styling Charts and Reports

Charts and Reports can be easily styled with the page width size options, page background, size, color, transparency, image, and other options. You can choose a relevant page format or even type in a custom size as per your requirements.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be said that Data Visualizations in Microsoft Power BI are, in fact, quite robust and customizable. With different kinds of Charts, Maps, and Views that you can include in your visualization, you can also draw in insights from different data sources to create these visualizations.

  • Although Microsoft Power BI supports direct connection to numerous data sources, there is still a wide range of data sources that are not supported directly by it.
  • This results in a complicated situation since if the data from one or more sources that are not supported by Microsoft Power BI has to be analyzed, a data integration tool is required that can extract data from various sources and load it in Microsoft Power BI.
  • One of the most well-known automated data integration platforms is Hevo.

Details on Hevo pricing can be found here. Give Hevo a try by signing up for the 14-day free trial today.

Aman Sharma
Technical Content Writer, Hevo Data

Aman Deep Sharma is a data enthusiast with a flair for writing. He holds a B.Tech degree in Information Technology, and his expertise lies in making data analysis approachable and valuable for everyone, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Aman finds joy in breaking down complex topics related to data engineering and integration to help data practitioners solve their day-to-day problems.

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