Page pattern

Period / Trend Analysis

Understand development over time against the relevant references and periods.

AnalysisIntermediateArchetype: Trend / Development
Typical user questions
  • How has this developed over time?
  • Is the current period normal?
  • Are we ahead of last year?

Period / Trend Analysis — 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
Period controlsfilters
DepartmentAll
KPI summarykpi
Actual€8.4M
Target€8.5M
Difference€-89kvs Budget€8.5M -101%Attention

Gap €-89k (-1%) against target.

Time seriestrend
W1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10W11W12W13
Variance / supporting KPIcomparison
Level: department

Bars: Revenue · vertical marker: Budget

Category breakdownbreakdown
Hierarchy: department › productGroup › productExpanded level 1 of 3
RowsRevenueBudgetvs Budget
€2.4M€2.5M-0.9%
€1.7M€1.7M-0.7%
€1.7M€1.7M-0.8%
€1.4M€1.4M-1.4%
€1.2M€1.2M-1.7%
Total€8.4M€8.5M-1.0%
What Power BI would do
  • Interact with a slicer, a bar or a navigation button to see the native behaviour described here.

Trend / Development — archetype wireframe

[ Context KPIs ] [ Time controls ] [ Main trend ] [ Benchmark / comparison ] [ Breakdown ]

Simulation of native Power BI behaviour
Zone 1
Context KPIs
Zone 2
Time controls
Zone 3
Main trend
Zone 4
Benchmark / comparison
Zone 5
Breakdown

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

Designer

Components: Line chart, Column chart, Cards, Slicers

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: **Comparison or detail**.

Navigation: Comparison or 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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