SSRS Chart Anatomy 101

SSRS Chart

Anatomy 101

Angel Abundez

Business Intelligence Consultant

DesignMind

Angel Abundez

• Business Intelligence Consultant, DesignMind

• Microsoft Business Intelligence

• ASP.NET

• SharePoint

• Worked with SQL Server since 2007

• SSWUG BI Author

• Co-Lead, Bay Area MS BI User Group

Goals

• Decompose a Chart to its components

• Identify trends in Visualization

• Microsoft improves defaults with each release

• Sales Target Chart (Correlation Bar Chart)

• Sales Trend Chart (Time-Series Line Chart)

• Interactive Charts (1 click Filter & Highlight)

• Actions and SSRS Expressions

Improved Visualization in 2008 R2

• White Chart Area

• Light Grid Lines

• No Black borders

• Condensed menu

Even Better DataViz in Power View

• No borders

• No legend

• No Axis titles

• Light Title Colors

• No gradients

• Built-In Click Actions

• 1 click Filter & Highlight

Even Better DataViz in Power View

Power View Design Tenents

• Less is more

• Easy for the user

• 2 clicks to ROI

• 1 way to do things

Visualization Tips

• Use light Grid lines, if at all

• No black borders. Save the Ink!

• Use new Titles or Custom Positioning. Don’t overlap.

• Lighten your text

• Widen your bars for legibility

• Space between bars isn’t always necessary.

• Area charts should use Background Pattern of

“Percent50”

Keep Visualization in Mind

1. Group the Data

2. Sequence the Data

3. Prioritize the Data

Stephen Few(2004) Show Me the Numbers

Decompose a Chart

Legend(s)

Title(s)

Chart Area(s)

Horizontal Axis

Vertical Axis

Series

Grid Lines

Axes Titles

Decompose a Chart

• Demo – Creating a Chart

Interval Scales

• Nominal

• Category Groups have no logical order and no connection with each other. ie. Departments

• Ordinal

• Category Groups don’t have close connection with one another, but they do have order. ie. “First, Second, Third” or “Small, Medium, Large

• Interval

• Category Groups are interrelated and have logical order. ie. Months, Quarters, Years

Demo

• Monthly Sales Target

• Yearly Sales Time-Series

• Product Dashboard (1-click Highlight & Filter)

If you don’t know, now you

know… • Custom Positioning

• Interval = 1

• Strip Lines

• Docking in and out of the Chart Area

• New Titles

• New Chart Areas

• Background Pattern

• Export to PDF

Keep in Touch!

Keep in touch!

• Twitter: @AngelStreamline

• Email: angel@designmind.com

• Website/Blog: angelsbiblog.com

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION