SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Here is a link to the Contoso Sales Demo dataset:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=46801

A few things we’d like to see:

1. Visually pleasing dashboards with a common design theme – be creative!!!

2. Easy-to-understand visuals (e.g., KPIs and goals wherever possible), cohesive reports (i.e.,
elements in any one report should work together and not be too complicated).
3. An example of using KPIs and conditional formatting to highlight changes in data.
4. Period over Period Measures (YTD, LY YTD, Year-over-Year, MoM, etc…).
5. Multiple slicers, drill-downs, etc…
6. Show “Last Refresh Date/Time” & “Last Transaction Date” at the top of the reports.
7. Any other views or visuals you think will help tell a compelling story.
8. Be able to communicate “the story” to us after completing the exercise.

The following list should be used as a checklist to make sure you are following Blue Margin’s
report creation guidelines. Not all of these guidelines will apply in all cases (though some
definitely do), but you should at least consider them in every case.

Design Principles
 The greatest value is bringing data together in a way that is easy to consume.
 Shifting time from the build phase to the planning/wireframing phase ultimately saves time.
Do it!
 Consistent page structure for a set of reports is essential (refresh date and slicer locations,
similar types of info in the same quadrants, etc.).

Questions to ask about a wireframe/report:

What is the take-away for this report?
 Who is the audience?
 What decisions does it help to make?
 What actions does it drive?
What is the story? What is the user's journey through the report?
 Need 1-3 use cases. "I'm the business owner. I want to minimize inventory..."
Think about the "hierarchy" of things that matter
 For example, if the client cares about seeing sales growth, think about reporting on
the key operational items that drive sales growth.
Make sure that what the client is asking for in terms of visualizations actually answers his
questions. If not, suggest a better approach.
Guidelines/Suggestions:
 Don't start building a report until you have wireframes completed and reviewed with a
colleague
 Simple, intuitive page titles
 Slicers on the right-hand side of the page
 Client logo in the upper-left portion of the page
 Last Date Refreshed and Last Transaction dates in consistent locations across a set of
reports
 Shoot for a maximum of 3-4 main visuals per report
 Drill-down titles can be confusing (e.g. Product Type/SKU/Color/etc...)
o Use simple, intuitive titles that are consistent across a set of reports
 All measures must be formatted using Dax Formatter
 All measures should have number formatting applied at the measure level
o You can always change that formatting for an individual visualization
 KPI's should be prominent in the design
 Don't use exact KPI icon colors in other visuals
o For example, green is used for good and red for bad, so don’t use them in a bar
chart unless those meanings make sense there
 There are 3 overall types of information to present on most reports: high-level status,
trend, context (and sometimes a table of granular numbers)
 Use snap-to-grid (make sure to turn it on when first creating reports)
o Everything should line up and be distributed in a pleasing and consistent way
 Consider using dynamic text insights where appropriate and helpful
 Use consistent font size, color, and type across a set of reports
 For visualization titles, use a larger font than the default
 Consider the page background carefully
o If using grey, avoid transparent visual backgrounds (produces "muddiness")
o Always at least consider using a white or "cleaner" background
 Wrap drop-down slicers in a consistent color so that it’s easy for the user to differentiate
them from visualizations (especially cards)
 Minimize "digits on the screen"
o For example, if $1.9M does the trick, don't show it as $1,912,543, or if 24%
conveys the information needed, don't show it as 24.32%