Page pattern

Search / Explore

Find one record or a small set of records inside a large table and continue to its detail page.

DetailBasicArchetype: Search / Lookup
Typical user questions
  • Where is this article?
  • Which items match these criteria?
  • What is the value for this specific store?

Search / Explore — clickable example

Shared retail dataset. Every control works; the log shows what Power BI would change.

Simulation of native Power BI behaviour
Filter contextDepartment:All
Search / filtersfilters
Search departmentAll

Native slicer with search enabled; matches values, not free text.

Result countkpi
Revenue€8.4Mvs Budget€8.5M -1%Attention
vs Previous year€8.4Mvs Previous year€8.3M +1.4%On track
Margin€2.1Mvs Benchmark€2.1M -0.2%Attention
Sortable tabledetail
5 rows
vs Budget
Fresh€2.4M€2.5M€608k -0.9%
Beverages€1.7M€1.7M€426k -0.7%
Grocery€1.7M€1.7M€426k -0.8%
Non-food€1.4M€1.4M€346k -1.4%
Household€1.2M€1.2M€291k -1.7%
Total€8.4M€8.5M€2.1M-1.0%
Drillthrough to detailnavigation
What Power BI would do
  • Interact with a slicer, a bar or a navigation button to see the native behaviour described here.

Search / Lookup — archetype wireframe

[ Search / filter area ] [ Result count / context ] [ Results table ] [ Selection / actions ]

Simulation of native Power BI behaviour
Zone 1
Search / filter area
Zone 2
Result count / context
Zone 3
Results table
Zone 4
Selection / actions

Reading order follows the zones above, top-left to bottom-right.

Designer

Components: Slicers, Text/search slicer patterns, Table, Matrix, Buttons

Hierarchy: Context/control → status/primary answer → explanation/breakdown → detail → next step.

Developer

Interaction: Use only interactions that support the page's next analytical step; typical next level: **Entity detail**.

Navigation: Entity detail

Implementation: Compose from the listed native visuals/controls and the standard interaction patterns in this guide; custom visuals are exceptions.

Common mistakes
Treating the archetype as a rigid screen; adding unrelated analytical tasks; duplicating controls already handled globally.
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