Transcripts
1. Introduction: One of the most powerful ways to model data and visualize data is through the use of a very powerful tool
which is Power BI. Specifically, a very powerful
visual within PowerBI, which are the line charts. In this current class,
I'm going to be sharing with you my insights
and how to go about creating a line chart
with PowerBI in order to visualize and model your data in order to drive the
decision making process, whether you are a
marketing professional. Entrepreneur, a
creator, some organ, graphic design and branding. It's very important and crucial to be able
to take raw data and visualize it in the best way possible to drive
decision making, whether time
management concerns, whether project management
concerns, the list goes on. It's very crucial to be
equipped with those skills. As an engineer, as an
entrepreneur and a CEO, decision making is crucial. Raw data does not provide
the full picture, and the best way to
go about figuring out the insights and the
analytics is to make visual connections and draw the visual connections from raw data using powerful
tools such as PowerBI. In this current class, I'm going to teach you how to create such a powerful line chart in order to make sense of the data, and let's get the class started.
2. Your Project: Project for the class
revolves around using Power BI in
order to create line charts and which
I'll be sharing with you raw dataset where you're going to be uploading
it to Power BI, using it as a data source, after which you're
going to be using it to create line charts. Feel free to get quite creative, add some graphic
design elements, visuals, branding to reflect your own approach to
data visualization. Afterwards, you're
going to be sharing your results with the rest of
the community for feedback.
3. Data Visualization with Line Charts as part of Project Management, Time Management and Business: One of the most
important visualizations that you need to
be familiar with, which is the line chart. So a line chart, literally, it's quite familiar
and popular to many, and it's very powerful to
represent or model the data. So once you click on the
line chart over here, you're going to have
the same display for the X axis Y axis. Notice we have a
secondary Y axis, which literally layers in
another Y axis over here. We got the legend, but it's not going to filter data
because it's a line, so it's not going to be
applicable in this current case. Then you got the tool
tip if you'd like to represent a certain display, once you hover about this, and I'm going to show you a very powerful measure to have. So how are we going
to navigate this? First of all, before
you use a visual, think about the data that
you would like to represent. Let's say, I would
like to represent the total sales on the Y axis. And for the X axis, the best thing to use is
something continuous like time because if you're drawing a line over a period of time, you're going to see the
visuals full potential. Let me show you how.
So for the X axis, I'm going to go for
the release date. Notice the data that I have for the release that
has a drop down. Why? Because it includes
different sub rows, different dates,
different timelines. So when I put on the X axis, take a look at this,
I got the year, the quarter, the month,
and the day, right? So my release date is broken
down into various segments. I could remove the
day over here. It alters the data. I could remove the quarter,
it changes the data. So I got my month
and year as part of my data and the sum of the
total sales for the Y axis. Now, I'm going to fix up the data just simply
to make sure it reflects the numerical
figures format for the sum of total sales,
going to be the currency. I've changed this to dollars. I got the dates over here. Now I'm going to apply this for the release
date of the month. It's going to be a number, which is already the
case that we have, so we don't need to fix
this. Then navigate back. So if I'd like to add a legend, it's not going to work
because adding a legend over here is not going
to help me much. Take a look at what's
going on, right? It's actually confusing
in this sense. You're able to see segments
based on certain parameters, but it doesn't meet the
purpose of the line. Feel free to use it, by the way. But when I say it doesn't work, it doesn't mean technically
it doesn't work. It means from visual
data representation, it's not very helpful, unless you choose something
which makes sense. How about the console? Let's add this as a legend. Notice over here, the
visual representations slightly go hand in hand with the sales and the date because they're able
to mimic the behavior. So if I click on one of them, PS five, PS two, PS three, you're able to
make sense of the data. Or you can just simply remove
this and you just allocate the sales per year and make sense of the
visuals that you have. Notice what's popping
up on the screen, which is the sum of
the total sales. The numbers over here. If I click on the drill up, I'm able to layer the information that I
have based on the date. I got the month, the year,
and the release date. So when I'm taking a look at
the information that I have, I have the ability, what I call this to drill up or drill down. Let's click click on
this. Drill Down. Okay. Here we go. Now, what happens. So this is the lowest
level of the data. I've arranged my data based
on year and month, right? So month is the
lowest level of data. Look what happened November, October, September, August, May. See what's going on over
here. Now, let's go up. Now it fixed it based on
year. This is very powerful. That's why I told you
at the beginning, make sure that you're using data which makes sense to use. So for the X axis,
for the line chart, it's very important to go
for the continuous data, which has the ability
to be drilled down. So what do I mean
by drilled down? Literally, if you take a look
at the option over here, add drill through fields. What does that mean? Take a look at the data over here
when I click on this. It shows me that
my years or data my hierarchy includes years,
month, quarter, days. So if I select all of them, and I'm going to drag
all of the data to the Let me drag it to
the drill through. Here we go. Look
what's happening. I have the ability now to
drill through the data, either to summarize the data
or categorize the data. So if I click on
Tuesday, for example, it pinpoints that specific
sale for that specific time. If I click on certain
elements over here, it will modify it accordingly. This is part of drilling
down where you're able to think about it like you're
zooming in the data, right? So here you have the ability
to drill mode is on. If you click on
this, by the way, always when you have
the ability to drill, take a look at these
at the top, okay? So drill up because there's no room to drill
up at this current stage. Let's go for Drill mode is on. Click on the data
point to drill. Now, click to Drill Down. So I'm trying to drill down based on the
data that I have, which I've already
done, by the way, I've selected one over here. So I'm going to remove this and go to the next level in the
hierarchy. Here we go. I zoomed in quarter. Zoom in month. Zoom in day. You get
the idea, right? So when you have the ability
to drill through the data, it gives you more
of a perspective. Now, I'm going to add
the release date, and I'm going to follow
the same approach. Go on the next level. Here we go. Now,
I have removed it to clear any selections
that I had before. Once you have a selection, you need to be careful
with the icons at the top, because they are not
going to be overridden by They are going to be
overridden by the selections, and they cannot
override the selection. So make sure that before you select the
buttons at the top, that you actually
clear this out, clear the complete
drill down option. That way you have
all of the data. Notice now I have selected the release
for all of the data. You have the ability
now to click on Drill Down. Drill mode is on. Here we go. Drill up,
drill up, drill up. So we go to the year, drill
down, drill down, drill down. You have the ability to go to
the month and the quarter. So this basically helps us
enable the drill down option. Here I go up, here
you go down, right? So you click on the button over here to enable the
drill down option. Done drill up and drill down. Once you go about drilling down, it means you are
zooming in the data. And take a look at the
display over here. This is what we call
as the tool tip hover. Once you are moving or hovering over a certain data
point, you have this visual, which is the sum
of the total sales at this current case based on the month, maybe
based on the day. I I'd like to go for
the month, here we go. You can see a trend over here. Let's go for another drill up. For the quarter, take
a look at the year. Notice what's
happening over here. You are literally
dissecting your data. You have the ability to analyze the data
based on the year, based on the day,
based on the month. So it's very, very
powerful to know how to tinker with
the line charts, and that's what we
have done over here. So we're able to add some continuity to the X axis by adding what we call
as drill down data, and you have the ability to
zoom in into the dataset. This is what's happening at the column or the table level. So if you'd like to add
such ability to drill down, make sure at the beginning of the data source integration, your column reflects
these parameters, the release date,
you have the year, the quarter, the
month, and the day. And like I've mentioned,
it's important to have at the back
of your mind how these visuals could help you out because once we get to building
the report from scratch, you are able to draw
some inspiration. You're able to
modify the report. You might have some your
own unique insight based on your own situation instead of following a
solid methodology, a solid step by step without
any room for innovation. On the contrary. You'll
be provided with both the step by step
practical example, and these lessons
will help you drive the innovation for
your own specific case and for your own
specific application.
4. Wrapping Up: So what do you think? I truly hope that you found
the class, helpful. If it helped you level up
your knowledge in terms of data visualization using charts in order to make sense of the data line charts specifically. This will help you make
sense of fra data and drive decision making
regardless of your industry, regardless of the practice. Hopefully, you found
it quite beneficial, helped you level up your
knowledge by at least 1%. It means it's a job well done, and I look forward to receiving your feedback on the
current class and make sure to follow my profile for the latest releases and updates, and I'll see you
in the next class.
Engr. Hussein Attié, Entrepreneur I Engineer I Educator
