Power BI allows you to create reports with ease, but that doesn't mean they'll automatically look good. There's a meaningful difference between a corporate-grade dashboard and a default-settings report. Here are three foundational principles that separate professional Power BI work from the rest.
Define a Report Structure
Establishing a consistent layout is fundamental. Professional reports follow templates with predetermined positions for logos, fonts, and text sizes aligned with your organisation's branding standards.
Power BI's default canvas dimensions are 1280 × 720 pixels, adjustable through the Visualizations pane's Format icon. Before you build a single visual, create a generic template that specifies logo placement and font conventions — this gives future analysts a clear framework to work within and keeps your reporting consistent across the business.
Group Your Measures
Scattered calculations across multiple tables make maintenance a nightmare. Organise all measures in a dedicated location from the start.
Use Home → Enter Data to create a custom table labelled "Group of Measures." Once created:
- Select Column1 to establish the measure location.
- Add measures via Modeling → New Measure.
- Hide Column1 to keep the data model clean.
This single habit makes your reports far easier to audit, share, and hand over to colleagues.
Apply Gestalt Principles to Your Layout
Good design follows the principle that more is less. Recommended spacing between visual elements is 20–40 pixels — enough breathing room to prevent visual noise without wasting canvas space.
William Thompson's 2017 Power BI Summit presentation on Gestalt principles is required reading for anyone building serious dashboards. The key principles:
- Proximity & Similarity: Related objects should share visual characteristics — users will intuitively group them.
- Continuity: Maintain consistent axes across comparable charts so comparisons are immediate.
- Figure and Ground: Use colour strategically to emphasise the most important data point in each visual.
- Enclosure & Symmetry: Group related visuals together using borders or background shapes to create visual hierarchy.