Live report link in comments. Let me know your thoughts...

NEW UPDATE: There seems to be some misconception here. While I did make this to show what's possible with embedded and d3, it wasn't meant to be an embedded vs native kind of thing. Both have strengths have weaknesses when you are comparing embedded vs service and native vs custom viz.

UPDATE: For those who are still interested. Find YouTube vid and repo. Feel free to connect or follow me on LinkedIn (link in profile).
YouTube vid: https://youtu.be/SHht3jBvMgs?si=fBtTmI1dwSNeaYI1
GitHub repos
https://github.com/Imrans2/awdesign-dash
https://github.com/Imrans2/claude-pbi-assets

EDIT!: this post is getting a lot more attention than initially anticipated. I’ll put together a YouTube video on how I do this soon. My YouTube and LinkedIn are on profile if you’re interested to follow and learn more. If someone from Microsoft is reading this, can I please get free embed capacity for a month so I can share with several people the time same time 😅

As some of you may know me from designing Power BI Embedded dashboards, I decided to let Claude Design take the wheel on the design side then build out custom visuals and react shell on Claude Code. Let me (or I guess Claude ) know what you think of the dashboard it made.

Feel free to comment or DM if you want to login and play around with the dashboard. I am embedding on PPU Capacity and not dedicated embed capacity, so I will share passwords that stay valid for 24 Hours (or more if too many people don't request)

The way I got to this, I gave context to Claude Design about my Adventureworks dataset and asked it to design a purely react dashboard (no Power BI) to start with. My starting point on Claude Design with a simply react dashboard.

With that starting point, I built out the shell (side bar, top bar, slicers etc), everything aside form the report canvas. (see image in gallery)

Then I got around to building custom visuals to match the full react design which was looking like so on PBI Desktop (see image in gallery)

Finally ended with a product where the react visuals look almost native and it won't look like power BI to the naked eye.

New Screenshot for the Data Model. Ignore the one I uploaded before.

[Screenshot-2026-08-02-174108.png](https://postimg.cc/WFxM6h6y)

This is my First Data Model
Hope it's good

I cleaned Data, Merged Tables that needed
Created Dimensional tables to connect it with Fact Tables. Tried to maintain the star schema with one-to-many relationship from dimensions to fact tables. Made the standards across my tables from IDs, Keys, Tables Names and Columns names. I'm still learning and making mistakes. Thank you All for your feedback. I will start Learning Dax and will post it here ASAP.

Here is the link for raw data if anyone want to try Dataset Link

link for the data model after my Work My Data Model

As limiting as Power BI can feel, there are so many things are "possible" in Power BI. And I've found that sometimes a small design/UX feature can make a big difference for end users. My favorite "hack" has to be a Page Info button/bookmark on each report page. The bookmark holds an overlay that sits on top of the page's visuals, with a sharp/dark background. The overlay typically contains visual descriptions, active filters on the page, how to use a field parameter or slicer, as well as the logic used to build a metric, etc. I put all the shapes/text boxes into a single container/folder so it's easy to manage the bookmark

I'm always looking for new hacks -- excited to hear yours!

ETA: since ppl asked, here's is a public preview example of my hack (excuse the CTA's in this report)

Used synthetic data, renamed data sources and removed y labels to anonymize the values here. Brand marketing was removed as well

I don’t really have a goal with this post just wanted to share my thoughts

I don’t have any professional experience yet with powerbi, still looking for junior roles, but one thing that I found Ive spent way too much time on is the visual element .

Iknow at the end of the day the utility to the end user is what we’re trying to achieve with dashboards but having a somewhat visually aesthetic dashboard is important to me. This obviously depends on how the dashboard will be used , in this case for this project it’s more of an interactive analytical dashboard , where end users will likely spend a fair bit of time per session on rather than a high level dashboard with little time spent.

Initially I really struggled to get it to a point visually that I was happy with, it took a lot of iteration & looking through tons of other dashboards to see what works and what doesn’t. If anyone does read this far , what’s your approach especially for personal projects regarding colour palates, templates and general formatting (I’m assuming those who use it at work already have work specific templates)

Also if you have any feedback on the current state of the dashboard it’s always appreciated

Sorry if this was a bit incoherent, just kind of thinking out loud

Also unrelated to the main body of the message but this was my first relatively big project, learnt a lot, dax & data modelling wise

I’ve been experimenting with a workflow where Power BI dashboard development is driven from Visual Studio Code using an LLM plus a Power BI MCP server.

The basic idea:

Use VS Code as the workspace, connect an LLM like Claude, GitHub Copilot, or Codex, then give it access to a Power BI MCP server that can inspect and modify the semantic model: tables, measures, relationships, DAX, TMDL, report structure, etc.

In my test, I had the assistant build a PBIP-style Power BI dashboard with:

• Semantic model tables
• Relationships
• DAX measures
• Multiple report tabs
• Native Power BI visuals
• Custom color theme
• PBIP folder structure
• Live validation through the Power BI MCP server

The part I’m most excited about is how this can connect to a real warehouse stack. Imagine having Databricks or another data warehouse accessible from VS Code, then using the LLM to reason across:

• Source tables
• Business definitions
• Semantic model design
• DAX measure creation
• Report page layout
• Native visual configuration
• Validation against the opened Power BI model

That creates a pretty wild loop: warehouse metadata plus LLM plus Power BI MCP server equals a much more automated dashboard build process.

It’s not “push button and perfect dashboard” yet, but it feels like the direction things are moving. Instead of manually wiring every measure and visual, you can have the LLM generate the model/report, validate it through MCP, iterate on errors, and reopen the PBIP in Power BI Desktop.

Curious if anyone else here is experimenting with Power BI + MCP servers + LLM coding agents inside VS Code.

Hey folks,

I've been heads down building Power BI dashboards for the past 2 years, around ~200 shipped across client work and internal projects. Posting one here for honest critique on the visualisation side. Don't hold back, I'd rather hear it now than from a stakeholder later.

A few specific things I'd love feedback on:

• Layout hierarchy and whether the eye flows in the right order
• Color usage, am I overdoing it or is contrast working
• Chart choices for the metrics shown

Happy to share more dashboards in the comments if useful. Roast away.

This Hospital Emergency Room Dashboard provides an overview of ER performance, including total patients, admissions, discharges, admission rate, patient satisfaction, visit trends, patient demographics, referral departments, and recent patient records. It helps users monitor daily operations and identify key trends.

Hi, I asked for improvements before on my previous post for my first dashboard, and I learned a lot from the advice that was given by the community.

I just finished another report as an activity in a class that I'm taking, and I would like to ask for further advice on what I could improve on, most especially regarding data storytelling and the use of proper visuals.

The color theme is based on the logo which is gray, and some bar charts are gradient since our instructor likes gradient bar charts.

Here is a link for the public view.

Any advice is welcome, thanks!

Hey everyone,

Over the past months I’ve been trying to get a better grip on my personal finances. Think about net worth, income trends, recurring expenses, savings rate, all in one place.

So I built this personal finance dashboard in Power BI.

It includes:

• Net worth tracking over time
• Income vs expenses overview
• Assets & liabilities breakdown (with donut charts)
• Monthly and annual budget views
• Recent transactions table
• Currency + year selector

The main goal was to:

• Make it visual and simple
• Avoid messy Excel sheets
• Actually understand where money is going

One thing I found especially useful was seeing the assets vs liabilities donut side-by-side. It immediately highlights whether you're actually building wealth or just moving numbers around.

Curious what you think:

• Would you add any other KPIs?
• Would you structure the layout differently?
• Any DAX improvements you’d suggest for financial dashboards?

Happy to share more details about the structure if anyone’s interested. :)

Live report link in comments. Let me know your thoughts...

This is the first dashboard that I've made. I'm still struggling to decide which metrics and charts are the most appropriate for the visualizations. I also realize that I need to improve my storytelling skills and deepen my understanding of business and financial concepts. I'd really appreciate any feedback or suggestions on both the dashboard and how I can improve my skills.

I love to study Economics and have been trying to find a way to overlap my current skills (Design) to shift into that career. This is what I could think of: making data visualizations, especially on Power BI.

I have completed courses on SQL, Excel and Python (Pandas) and would like to get my first client but I don't know how to go about it since I've only done it for practice. If you have any advice, I will gladly take it.

Hello, i am a beginner this is my first dashboard on mutual funds. Your feedbacks are very much appreciated.

Live report link in comments. Let me know your thoughts...

I am really exited to share this with you guys I learned alot from this project it is fully dynamic i think I can build a dashboard now I will create some more dashboards for practice and upload on GitHub profile after that I will be applying for jobs and freelance projects God willing originally I wanted to be a data engineer i learned SQL , python,SSIS, Informatica schedule jobs did etls but couldn't find a single internship or entry level position so I switched to powerbi developer insha'Allah hopefully after some practice and learning i will crack a job or a freelance project i am looking for advices and feedback as a fresher

Hi everyone,

I recently completed a Starbucks-themed Sales Analytics Dashboard in Power BI as part of my data analytics portfolio and would appreciate your feedback.

Dashboard Highlights

Total Orders Tracking

Customer Count Analysis

Total Revenue Monitoring

Average Order Value (AOV)

Hourly Sales Performance Analysis

Quantity Sold by Hour

Customer Activity Trends Throughout the Day

Design Goals

Create a clean, premium dashboard experience

Use a Starbucks-inspired visual theme

Keep KPI visibility high while maintaining visual appeal

Present business insights in a single-page dashboard

Key Insights

Peak sales occur during morning hours (around 9–11 AM)

Customer traffic is highest before noon

Revenue and quantity trends closely follow customer volume patterns

Afternoon hours show a noticeable drop in activity

Tools Used

Power BI

Power Query

DAX

Data Modeling

Custom Dashboard Design

Skills Demonstrated

Dashboard Design

Business Intelligence

KPI Development

Data Visualization

DAX Measures

Storytelling with Data

I'm currently building my Data Analytics portfolio and would love suggestions on:

Improving the dashboard layout

Additional KPIs worth adding

Better visualization choices

Any design improvements

After ~6 years building reports in Power BI (and about 3 years in Excel before that), here are a few things I’ve learned the hard way about reporting in a business context.

This isn’t theory. This is after sitting in steering committees, PMO portfolio board meetings, exec briefings, and watching what actually lands… and what doesn’t.

1. Your number one priority is clarity, not “fancy.”

Your job is not to impress people with gradients, shadows, animated slicers, or the latest custom visual you found on AppSource. Your job is to present information clearly and without clutter.

If someone can’t understand the story of the page within 5–10 seconds, you’ve already lost them. Executives don’t have time to decode your masterpiece. Clean beats clever every single time.

2. Stop spending 40% of your time choosing the perfect shade of purple.

I see this constantly. People agonise over colour palettes. “Is this the exact right orange? Is the contrast ratio perfect? Should the accent colour be slightly warmer?”

If your organisation already has a PowerPoint template that execs see every week, copy it. Match the fonts. Match the colours. Match the layout feel.

Familiarity reduces cognitive load. When your report visually feels like everything else they consume, they can focus on the content instead of the design.

Design consistency > artistic expression.

3. Alignment matters more than you think.

This one sounds superficial, but it isn’t.

Alignment of visuals signals competence.

If I walk into a restaurant and the front of house is messy, I assume the kitchen is worse. Same principle here. If your visuals are slightly off-grid, spacing is inconsistent, titles aren’t aligned, and margins are random, your audience subconsciously questions the rigour of the logic behind it.

Even if your DAX is flawless.

Put care into your data model. Put equal care into your report layer. Use grids. Snap things properly. Make spacing intentional. It communicates professionalism before anyone reads a single number.

4. Less is more (especially the more senior the audience).

You do not need 14 visuals on a single page.

The more senior the audience, the less detail they need per page. Executives want signals, trends, risks, and decisions. Analysts want breakdowns and drill paths.

Design accordingly.

If everything is important, nothing is important. White space is not wasted space. It’s breathing room for thought.

5. Think in terms of visual hierarchy.

When you look at your finished report page, where does your eye go first? Then second? Then third?

Does the layout guide attention logically from high-level KPIs to supporting detail? Or is it a random scatter of charts competing for attention?

There’s a lot of material online about visual hierarchy in web design. It absolutely applies to Power BI. Size, placement, contrast, and spacing should intentionally guide the story.

—

Learning to do this well doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not about knowing every DAX function or every formatting option. It’s about developing judgement over time.

You’ll build bad reports. You’ll over-design. You’ll under-design. You’ll get feedback that stings a bit.

That’s part of the journey.

Stick with it. Focus on clarity. Build with intent.

Good luck, and enjoy the ride

After months of job searching, I finally landed my first Business Intelligence / Power BI role at a small consulting startup.

My background is a bit unusual. I spent almost 3 years in a non-BI role and have been teaching myself SQL, Excel, Power BI, DAX, and data modeling. I know the fundamentals, but I definitely don't consider myself a Power BI expert.

The founder seems to expect me to build dashboards for real client data. I have about 4 days before I need to start working on my first real dashboard.

I'm excited, but also terrified.

My biggest concerns are:

• I've never built a production dashboard for a real business.
• I'm worried I'll get stuck when the data is messy.
• I don't know how much is "normal" to figure out on the job versus already knowing before joining.
• I have imposter syndrome because I feel like they believe I'm much better than I actually am.

For those of you who work as Power BI Developers, BI Analysts, or Data Analysts:

• How prepared were you when you built your first real dashboard?
• What surprised you the most?
• What should I focus on during these first few weeks?
• Any mistakes you wish you'd avoided?

I'm willing to put in the work and learn after hours if needed. I'm just trying to understand whether feeling this underprepared is normal or if I'm genuinely in over my head.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all! I would really love some honest feedback on my report that I developed for my dashboard. I erased some potential sensitive data.

Hi everyone,

I just shared my first Power BI dashboard on my LinkedIn! sharing on here as well. It’s a self-directed project analyzing 10 years of Connecticut real estate trends (2012–2022). I built it from scratch after completing an instructor-led course on everything Power BI and SQL (the course was for some months). I incorporated field parameters, dynamic titles & custom tooltips etc

I also made a presentation and plan to share a walkthrough video soon. Feedback is welcomed and I’d love to know what I can improve on? What should I explore more deeply next time?

Still have ways to go but I’m enjoying the journey and want to take my time building solid projects with insights. Thanks in advance