Level 5 · Lay out the page from summary to detail

The same seven visuals can make a page that reads in ten seconds or one that nobody understands. The difference is layout: where each thing sits, how big it is, and what draws the eye first.

What you are working in

This quiz runs in a practice page, not Power BI; Power BI Desktop runs only on Windows. In Power BI Desktop, the tools for layout are on the canvas and in the ribbon: View → Gridlines and Snap to grid to line visuals up, Format → Align and Distribute for several selected visuals, View → Selection to order and group them, and View → Themes to set one colour palette for the whole report.

Three bands

• Top: the big picture. Four to six KPI cards, each with a comparison: vs last year, vs target, vs last month. A Card visual with a reference label, or the KPI visual with its target, does this.
• Middle: the explanation. Trends and breakdowns that say why the KPIs moved: monthly sales against last year, margin by category.
• Bottom: detail and exploration. Tables, top-N lists, drill-down for the reader with a follow-up question.

People read a page like a text, from the top left, so the order on the page should match the order of their questions.

Make one thing loud

• One accent colour for what needs attention (the category whose margin fell), grey or a muted tone for the rest. Set it once in the theme rather than per visual.
• Size by importance. The main trend chart can be twice the size of a breakdown.
• Titles that say something. When the data shows it, a title like “Margin fell in Outdoor” beats “Margin by category” (the next level is about exactly that).
• Filters in one place, usually a strip under the title or a column on the left, the same on every page. Readers shouldn’t have to search for them.

Leave room

White space is not wasted space. Gaps between bands tell the reader where one idea ends. A page crammed edge to edge reads as one block.

Common mistakes

• Too many visuals. If a visual doesn’t serve a question in one of the three bands, cut it or move it to another page.
• Rainbow colours. A different colour per visual suggests differences that don’t exist.
• Slicers everywhere. Two slicer panels on one page make readers wonder which one wins.
• No title, or a title that names the page. “Finance” says nothing; “October: margin held, refunds doubled” says what to look for, if that’s what the data shows.