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 The visuals may look a little outdated, but the concepts are valid as of today.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
4.7
269 ratings
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Student Reviews (145)
  • Paulo Rocha (Jul 4, 2017)

    I highly recommend this course to everyone who is in BI area and congratulate Alberto and Marco for providing us such a comprehensive and well structured material. Keep up the good work!

  • Yusuf Hamzah (Jul 4, 2017)

    Even if you are a very artistic person and very proficient with Excel, I would still recommend the course. It is explained very clearly. You might not agree with all the rationale but still the exposition (of good or bad) is acceptable. It consolidates and polishes my Excel reporting skills in a much more refined way.

  • Peter Hofmann (Jun 20, 2017)

    This is a wonderful course! I like the way it explains the best usage of visuals and get's to the point that dashboards are supposed to provide information to the user. At this point I have enough arguments to go back to my business users and ask "what information is this dashboard providing you or the audience you wish to target"? In my opinion the money I spent for the course is well worth it! Thanks to the team at SQLBi for putting this together.

  • Mark Bond (Jun 20, 2017)

    A great reference point for designing dashboards. The checklist is very useful.

  • 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

  • Gerson Viergutz (Jun 9, 2017)

    Amazing. Congratulation.

  • Eric Theil (Jun 6, 2017)

    Received some excellent tips, advice, and guidance during this course. Highly recommend for anyone getting started with representing data visually.

  • John McNally (Jun 6, 2017)

    Superb work by the SQLBI team. Alberto and Marco explain the visual design skills that are needed to create effective dashboards. They distill the design approach into 15 Rules and describe each one with clarity. The course starts out with a "pretty" looking dashboard (typical of what you might encounter on the web or in slide presentations), and is slowly decomposed, repaired, and improved. Through this process, the viewer gains valuable insight into the reasons why some visuals do not work. This is just as important as knowing which visuals do work, and under what circumstances. Having recently read several books on dashboard design, I can see how masterfully the SQLBI team presents this material. The course covers the best practices and fundamental skills for the effective display of quantitative information on a dashboard. Highly recommended!

  • 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)
  • Chris Turnbull (Jun 1, 2017)

    Absolutely fantastic, the best £60 that I have ever spent. I have seen a lot of Dashboard Courses but this is done in a very different way. Not only do Alberto and Marco tell you what you should be doing but just as importantly they tell you not what to do and why. The methodology of starting with a bad Dashboard and turning it into something special is absolute genius. Thanks boys