Creating a dashboard
To create a dashboard, first log into the Power BI service at https://www.powerbi.com. This requires a work or school account with Microsoft to use Power BI. The Power BI service is where workspaces are hosted and where Power BI apps are created, shared, and hosted as well.
Once logged into the Power BI service, navigate to the workspace you’d like to create a dashboard in and then select New under the menu at the top:
Figure 10.3 – New menu on the Power BI service showing different types of content that can be created, including dashboards
Next, provide a name for the dashboard and click Create. If your organization requires setting a sensitivity label, then be sure to select the value for this option when asked. A newly created dashboard will be a blank or empty canvas to which visuals from any report in the workspace can be pinned and organized. Dashboards can be viewed on the Power BI service as part of a Power BI app or from the various Power BI mobile apps, which makes the consumption of Power BI insights easy from nearly any device or location. Dashboards are organized into workspaces the same as reports and datasets.
While the data contained in a dashboard may be the most valuable component, if the data is not presented in a visually appealing way, it won’t be as useful to the organization. Colors used in visuals play a big role in the impact they make; so, let’s next look at how we can use themes with dashboards.
Setting a dashboard theme
Dashboards are meant to be a single canvas that shows the most important information the user needs to see. As such, visual aspects such as themes are important to best convey the information. Dashboards support theming either with light, dark, color-blind-friendly, or custom themes. When using a theme, every visual on the canvas will use the colors of the theme.