Power BI Challenge 5 - Optical Data from Greg

Challenge Updates
2

Hi eDNA … Thanks for the opportunity to describe my report. Here’s an edit of the notes I included with my submission:

I tried to make this “report” look more like an app, so I made minimal use of analytical visuals, instead concentrating on the main “Appointments” page; the secondary “Patients” page was to be accessed as a drill-through target of the “Appointments” page only, and the “Export” page was added to allow not only allow easy export of the patients needing appointments, but one that would “sync” with the main “Appointments” page.

NOTES:

Data:

  • made assumption that the optician that did the patient’s last appointment would do the next appointment

Data Model:

  • imported [Optical Data Set.xlsx] as a staging query, and created references in new [Data Model] group for [Patients], [Opticians], [Appointments]

  • [Patients] table:

  • [Opticians] table

    • merged first and last name columns; duplicated column; split columns to re-create first name and last name

  • added [Dates] table using eDNA Extended Date Table M Code;

    • marked as Date table
    • used parameter to get and set start date to Jan 1 of first appointment year
    • used parameter to get and set end date to Dec 31 of the year after this year

  • added [Periods] table using eDNA Period Table M Code (Dynamic Date Range Slicer- Query M); adjusted for “this” and “next” periods (week, month, quarter, year)

Measures:

Visuals:

  • General:

    • added pages for [Appointments], [Patients], [Export]
    • hid all pages except for [Export] page for so PDF export (in either Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service) will output only the [Export] page
    • added buttons for page navigation to header (font bold white for current, font regular grey for options)
    • added card for [Session Admin] to footer to display last refresh, report ID, report version, report version date (these in card title and whitespace character in card field well)
    • added card for [Report Admin] to footer to display current date, current user (these in card title and whitespace character in card field well)
    • made extensive use of the [General] section in the Visualizations pane to confirm and adjust the values X/Y/Width/Height as necessary
    • used object layering (selection pane grouping) to make the user experience more “app-like” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKIcjGz_Swg)
    • calculated whether user was accessing report in Power BI Desktop or the Power BI Service and used this info to present tooltips relevant to the user’s environment
      • (used difference between NOW() and UTCNOW() to see if user was on Desktop or Service; I know this is a hack, and doesn’t work if the time in your time zone is the same as UTC, and I would have preferred to use USERNAME() and USERPRINCIPLENAME(), but against my understanding, for whatever reason [perhaps my free PBI license type?], these both gave me the same value irrespective of environment) (*** I’m not happy with this method, I’m still looking for a better way, and would be interested in anyone’s experiences/thoughts/comments ***)

  • [Appointments] page:

    • used standard list slicers complete with “Search” for (Next) Opticians and Patients
    • used “Chiclet Slicer” custom visual for Periods, Age Groups, and Next Appointment Status
    • used “Reset Slicers” button complete with bookmark to allow user to easily return to the original state
    • changed font colour of [Patient Name] column to blue to indicated that you can do something (in this case drill-through to [Patients] page for the selected patient)

  • [Patients] page:

    • used 3 multi-row cards to display General, Appointment, and Personal information for the selected patient
    • set “Patient Name” as drill-through target
    • presented the patient’s appointment history in a table, complete with data bars and up and down triangle icons as necessary to denote a changed right-eye or left-eye value from the previous appointment

  • [Export] page:

    • changed page size to “Letter” and increased spacing from edges in case PDF export was printed
    • used “Chiclet Slicer” custom visual for Periods, Age Groups, and Next Appointment Status
    • sync’d slicers to [Appointments] page to allow export of the patients/appointments that had been selected (via slicers) on the [Appointments] page
    • added PDF Download icon to permit use of the current environment (Desktop, Service) to display the tooltip relevant to the user’s environment

Things I’m happy with (in no particular order):

  • the simplicity of the report; from the brief, there were only a few requirements and my read was that none of these had to do with analytics, so instead tried to make “Penny” feel at home with an “app-like” experience
  • this challenge gave me the opportunity to explore drill-through, which I hadn’t used before
  • this challenge gave me the opportunity to explore the “Chiclet Slicer” custom visual, which I hadn’t used before
  • the use of measures to present relevant tooltips whether the user is accessing the report via Power BI Desktop or the PBI Service
  • the “red triangle” UNICHAR code images that denote changes in current-vs-previous left eye or right-eye value in the [Patient Appointment History] table on the [Patients] page
  • the use of dedicated admin measures to reference the UNICHAR codes and thus hide the need to remember which code means what when they’re used in subsequent measures (e.g.,

Red Triangle Up = UNICHAR( 128314 )
Red Triangle Down = UNICHAR( 128315 )

  • the data bars in the [Patient Appointment History] table on the [Patients] page; I’ve become such a fan of data bars in tables, as I see them as a great “bridge” for end uses who are comfortable with tabular reports (i.e., Excel spreadsheets) but may be unfamiliar with the wealth of visuals available in Power BI
  • I wanted to increase my knowledge of UNICHAR in Power BI, and this challenge gave me the opportunity to do so; I even was able to create a small set of about 200 (what I considered may possibly be) useful UNICHAR codes to reference for possible for future use

TEST Unicode.pbix (2.3 MB)
DAX UNICHAR - Select Codes.xlsx (15.4 KB)

  • I wanted to increase my knowledge about the use of a [Periods] table, which I included using the eDNA Period Table M Code (Dynamic Date Range Slicer- Query M)
    Dynamic Date Range Slicer- Query M

Things I’m not happy with (in no particular order):

  • as noted above, the use of the difference between NOW() and UTCNOW() to see if user was on Desktop or Service; I’m sure there is a better solution than this hack, but I ran out of the time that I’d allowed myself for this challenge before I found an acceptable solution
  • the “window-blind” effect of the table backgrounds on the [Appointment] and [Patients] pages; I really liked the simplicity of the eyeglasses graphic background, and wanted to see it, but when my transparent tables were placed above it, it was difficult to read the table, so I changed the alternating row background; a better solution was clearly (no pun intended :joy:) needed, but I again ran out of the time that I’d allowed myself for this challenge before I found an acceptable solution
  • I liked the addition of the PDF export image and tooltip, and in retrospect should have added a similar image and tooltip for Excel export, to give “Penny” more options
  • I should have added an image (or button) and tooltip to lead the user to drill-through capability; as per my submission, I only had a different colour for the patient name to denote you could do something, and if you didn’t try to right-click on a name you wouldn’t even know drill-through was available (this was further made an obvious omission as many other forum members included such an ability in their submissions (kudos to all)

Here’s my PBIX for any who may want to have a look
eDNA Challenge 5 - Optical Data - Greg Philps.pbix (1.6 MB)

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