Guide section 16 of 31
Dashboard / Report UX Heuristics
| Heuristic | Power BI-specific guidance |
|---|---|
| Cognitive load | One coherent analytical question per page. Remove unrelated metrics and controls. |
| Scanning | Place status/KPIs and the dominant answer early in the visual hierarchy; align edges and labels. |
| Visual hierarchy | Context → control → status → explanation → detail → next step. |
| Consistency | Keep filter locations, semantic colors, units, comparison labels and navigation behavior stable. |
| Affordance | Buttons, drillthrough actions and switchers should look interactive and use familiar labels. |
| Feedback | Selections, filters, active pages and changed views need visible state. |
| Discoverability | Do not hide essential drill/filter behavior behind non-obvious interactions. |
| Progressive disclosure | Overview surfaces exceptions; analysis explains; drillthrough adds context; detail shows records. |
| Recognition vs recall | Show selected filter/context values instead of expecting users to remember them. |
| Error prevention | Prevent contradictory filter states, unlabeled metric switches and invalid drill destinations. |
| Context preservation | Pass selected entity/filter context into drillthrough and provide a clear Back route. |
| Comparison | Always state the basis: budget, target, norm, peer, previous period or previous year. |
| Orientation | Page title, entity/location/period and navigation selected state should answer 'where am I?' |
| Navigation | Use the simplest native mechanism; avoid application-like bookmark state machines. |
| Information density | Operational pages may be dense; density must support scanning and action, not maximize visual count. |
| Data confidence | Use clear metric definitions, units, time grain and data-availability states; avoid implying precision not supported by the data. |