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TrendMarker: Chart Annotation for Performance Analytics

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Stevan Bodiroza's profile image

Stevan Bodiroza on 02 May 2024 15:30:18

I have this idea for a custom visualization that would be awesome for tracking how things change over time in Power BI.


Think about it: you have some data showing performance trends, maybe website traffic, project milestones, or even customer satisfaction scores. But you also want to highlight specific events that might have impacted those trends.


Here's the vision:

We'd have a chart (line chart, area chart, etc.) showing the performance trend.

Built right into the visualization would be a way to:


  • Annotate a change: Briefly describe what happened and when (start date). A marker would appear on the chart at that point.
  • Shade the impact period (optional): A toggle switch would let you select an end date, shading the timeframe the change was in effect.
  • Interactive tooltip: Hovering over the marker or shaded area reveals a clear and concise explanation of the change and its connection to the performance trend (e.g., "Website traffic surge following the launch of a new marketing campaign explained in detail what we introduced into the system ").
  • Annotation Library: An annotation library allows saving annotations for common changes. These can easily be applied across visualisations and shared between reports.

 

Imagine the benefits:

  • Quickly see the impact of events on performance.
  • Keep all the context within one visualisation.
  • Easily update annotations as things change.

 

Let me know what you think about this idea! Would you find a function like this useful on your charts? Any suggestions for improvement are welcome!

I'm curious to hear if anyone else has encountered similar challenges. How do you currently visualise changes in your Power BI reports?

 

Looking forward to hearing from all the data visualization wizards out there!

Cheers,

Stevan Bodiroza