Power BI Dashboard Design Video Course

This course is not a Power BI tutorial. It is focused on visualization principles. This course was recorded in 2017. The visuals may look a little outdated, but the concepts are valid as of today. 

Designing dashboards seems like a simple task, thanks to modern BI tools. In reality, designing dashboards that bring value and that people want to use is not that easy. A good dashboard must follow specific rules and design concepts.

The Power BI Dashboard Design video course:

  • Explains how to design beautiful dashboards that people can use every day.
  • Is a high-level reference guide that you can come back to later. Software updates will not impact the concepts that you learn here.
  • Is not just theory; it shows real examples and comparisons between great dashboards and dashboards that are poorly designed.
  • Can help more people than just the designers! Anyone who creates dashboards can benefit from this course. Designers will learn usability tips that many tend to underestimate.

This course is for day-to-day users of Power BI who do not use DAX but create reports by using the Power BI visuals. It is not a fit for people who have never used Power BI, and it does not expose the underlying technical mechanics of a Power BI dashboard.

The video course is divided in four parts:

  • First, an explanation of what a dashboard actually is…
  • Second, a brief introduction to the features of Power BI, as a reminder for users of the tool;
  • Third and most important, the design concepts. We include 15 rules to design a perfect dashboard;
  • Last, the chart reference. Use it to pick the right charts based on the kind of data you have to display.

The course includes several samples and resources, and additional written material to further explain the topics discussed by the teachers.

Students have access to a private discussion area where they can interact with the instructors asking questions related to the lectures and the exercises.

The content of this training was realized by Daniele Perilli.

 

Power BI Visuals Reference

The last section of the course classifies the visuals available in Power BI. This classification is also displayed in a single PDF that you can download for free. You can print or display this document to support your decision in choosing the right visuals for your dashboards.

Collapse allCurriculum

  • Presentation of Power BI Dashboard Design Course

    • Presentation of Power BI Dashboard Design Course
      FREE
    • Slides of the video course
    • Sample Rules
    • Sample Chart Reference
    • Dashboard design checklist
    • The Visuals Reference
    • The 15 Rules Reference
  • What people think a dashboard is and what it really is

    • What people think a dashboard is and what it really is
      FREE
    • What is a dashboard?
      FREE
    • Examples of bad dashboards
      FREE
    • A good dashboard
    • Recap
      FREE
    • Personal Finance dashboard
  • Introducing Power BI

    • Introducing Power BI
      FREE
    • What is Power BI?
    • Power BI in action
    • Are you starting from scratch?
    • Recap
  • The 15 rules to design a perfect dashboard

    • The 15 rules to design a perfect dashboard
      FREE
    • Introduction to rules
      FREE
  • Design for a target

    • Rule 1 - Design for a target
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Keep everything at a glance

    • Rule 2 - Keep everything at a glance
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Choosing the right page size
    • Resizing pictures
    • Using charts with hierarchical data
    • Recap
  • Keep it simple

    • Rule 3 - Keep it simple
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
      FREE
    • All art is quite useless
      FREE
    • Avoiding dark backgrounds
      FREE
    • Recap
      FREE
  • Align elements

    • Rule 4 - Align elements
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Prototyping with Chart Placeholder by OKViz
    • Recap
  • Be consistent

    • Rule 5 - Be consistent
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Highlight the most relevant information

    • Rule 6 - Highlight the most relevant information
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Be clear

    • Rule 7 - Be clear
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Start from zero

    • Rule 8 - Start from zero
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Highlighting a change in a time interval
    • Using Dot Plot by OKViz
    • Recap
  • Shorten the numbers

    • Rule 9 - Shorten the numbers
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Show the context

    • Rule 10 - Show the context
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Choose the right colors

    • Rule 11 - Choose the right colors
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Using colors that people can confuse
    • Introducing Color Helper by OKViz
    • Recap
  • Design dashboards, not reports

    • Rule 12 - Design dashboards, not reports
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Show variations

    • Rule 13 - Show variations
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Leave the noise off

    • Rule 14 - Leave the noise off
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • Pick the right charts

    • Rule 15 - Pick the right charts
      FREE
    • Explanation and demo
    • Recap
  • In conclusion

    • In conclusion
  • The chart reference

    • The chart reference
      FREE
    • Bar/Column charts
    • Bar/Column: express a trend
    • Bar/Column: sorting
    • Bar/Column: clustered vs. stacked
    • Bar/Column: coloring
    • Bar/Column: intervals
    • Gauge
    • Bullet Chart by OKViz
      FREE
    • Dot Plot by OKViz
    • Radar Chart
    • Line Chart
    • Area Chart
    • Sparkline by OKViz
      FREE
    • Candlestick by OKViz
    • KPI
    • Card with States by OKViz
      FREE
    • Treemap
    • Pie/Donut charts
    • Waterfall Chart
    • Funnel
    • Maps
    • Synoptic Panel by OKViz
      FREE
    • Histogram
    • Box & Whisker
    • Scatter Chart
    • Line & Column charts
    • Infographic Designer
    • 3D charts
    • Other charts
    • Custom visuals
Student Rating
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260 ratings
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4-star Reviews (25 of 140)
  • Saurabh Pandit (May 29, 2019)

    Good content overall. There could be more example so the rules are explained better. Also some of the rules for design by Stephen Few or Gestalt principles should be explained and covered. One of the key missing point on the final Dashboard or PowerBI Report page was that of information overload. Limiting the number of items on the front-end makes the Dashboard easy to focus on and simple to use.

  • Rodrigo Palomino (May 13, 2019)

    Excellent course. They keep it simple. Useful and beautiful!

  • Jorge Funes (Apr 26, 2019)

    Great !! very usefull

  • Leger DJIBA (Oct 19, 2018)

    It's a very nice and usefull course. Congratulation Guys !!!

  • Steve Wilde (Jun 21, 2018)

    Overall this was good. I previously completed my first dashboard and I had already done 95% of the things listed in your 15 items. It was a good confirmation for me. I do however disagree with the donut chart. It is very useful if you're using the interactivity aspect of PBI. Especially when you're looking at something like employee levels within a company. (e.g. Staff, Senior, Manager, Sr. Manager, Director, etc.)

  • Yoann Jeffrey CLOMBE (May 30, 2018)

    15 RULES Amazing Content, Thanks , looking forward to see you at the Montreal Power BI WORLD TOUR in November ;). LAST Part Repetition no Value , No Return on Time.

  • Matthew Smith (Feb 15, 2018)

    Great course!

  • Hafiz Gafurov (Jul 6, 2017)

    Good course. There is many great ideas.

  • Kenny McMillan (Jun 18, 2017)

    Very nice course and I have already started to alter my dashboards based on the recommendations. The section on colour blindness was very helpful. Would be nice to have a section on R visuals also in the future. Very helpful handouts also contained in the course. Bravo

  • Walter Biffi (Jun 5, 2017)

    I found the overall material interesting and appropriate but a bit pricy. I like the approach taken by showing how to find miss used visuals and using the outline rules to refactor an existing document. However, I think that the final result was still too crowded and difficult to read. There was still too much information to digest and not enough breathing white spaces, too clattered. I am a consumer of your various material and I do appreciate everything you're providing to the community. Thank you!

    • Balancing density and readability is one of the challenges of a dashboard - the risk is creating too many of them. It's certainly useful to get constructive feedback, we'll consider it in future revisions. Thanks!
      Reply by SQLBI (Jun 5, 2017)