Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI

Chapter 8. KPI Cards

Toward the top of nearly every dashboard, you’ll find cards displaying summary values. These are the first elements that catch the user’s attention, so we position key performance indicators (KPIs) on top of the report page. The term “KPI” can have various contexts. From a business perspective, it is the target against which we compare the current indicator value. From a simpler technical standpoint, it is any total value that we deem important and place on the cards. In Figure 8-1, you can see an example of the most straightforward cards providing us with a summary: we have earned $2.26M, selling with an average price of $270 about 17K units of the product.

Figure 8-1. Several basic cards with a single value

Usually, a KPI card contains not only a single value but also an additional indicator by which we can assess whether it’s good or bad (sometimes called a reference value). Let’s take an example of selling a digital product with three subscription plans: basic, advanced, and premium. In Figure 8-2, you see a series of three cards that provide a more detailed picture of the financial results:

• Sales for the advanced plan amount to $232K, falling short by 19% of the target, which is considered poor—indicated in red.

• On the other hand, advertising expenses were $38K, staying within the budget limit, resulting in a favorable negative deviation of –13%, indicated ...