Creating a dashboard like this

[jps]

I came across the following dashboard in Power Bi Community Forum.
Microsoft Power BI

• Will this still be called a dashboard or a report ?
• I am used to seeing a dashboard where we click page 1, page 2 page 3 and so on, but this is different. its like a 1 long page scroll. more like a pdf annual reports we get from companies, Is there a resource that guides on creating this type of report / dashboard?

[Heather]

technically, this is a report - because filters work on it.

One thing that normally takes time for new Power Bi developers and users to get used to is that MOST of what we create are reports - if it has slicers, filters, or buttons - you’re looking at a report, no matter how it is formatted.

Dashboards are pinned visuals from reports - and your design capabilities are much more limited.

that being said - I don’t think the long scroll is a good idea, but obviously it worked for whoever was designing that report.

[jps]

Got you.
I believe its the design part that kind of confused me a bit. - Thanks for explaining in details.

[Heather]

To clarify, the design aspect of the was quite clever, I just don’t normally think of a scrolling report as a good plan. But in this case, they managed to make it look more like a long website page, and less like a report.

Enough text and story-telling to drive interest, which is always a good thing. I do wonder if they could have made it as compelling if the data had still been updating. It was clear to me that this was reporting on a single poll that was conducted and is now over. The report writer could see what the end result of the poll was, and design the report to show this to the reader.

[jps]

Yes exactly - it must be on a one off analysis. had it been on a live and changing data, the story (i.e. the text) would also need to be updated.

What I really liked the concept of story telling with text and images and make it look like an infographic.

to create something similar even if it was not a long scroll, is it an image with text created outside of power bi and then imported within the report as a background & filters and charts placed on it ?

Wonder if this kind of design is possible from within power bi itself

[Heather]

there are several tools for storytelling in Power BI, and you can see some of them put to great use in the various challenges that we do.

Some things to look for in making your file look less “report like” are:

• Use dynamic text (the standard text box & smart narrative in this link are now merged as a single visual type): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-visualization-smart-narrative
• You can actually create infographics with the Infographic Designer visual: https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/power-bi-visuals/WA104380898?tab=Overview
• Consider using formula-driven visual titles instead of just static ones (see below)
• You can add images and color to your report, and they can even be data-driven (great discussion and links here): Can we change the logo and theme in the same power BI report based on parameters? - #4 by BrianJ
• Probably the hardest part is determining the story to tell, read through some of the Challenge report submissions, often the report designer talks about what they wanted to show in their report.

variable visual title:

[jps]

Hey Heather,

This s pure Gold. Thank you for sharing such valuable information. I will be exploring them more and surely these are going to make my reports look much different from how they are now. I can already see that in my mind.

Cheers!!

[Heather]

always happy to help, I’m looking forward to seeing what some of your upcoming Challenge entries look like