DEV Community: Katie

Dashboard Design Concepts- Take Your Dashboarding and Reporting Skills to the Next Level!

Katie — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:24:05 +0000

Data Deluge

There is an overwhelming influx of data that exceeds an organization's or individual's capacity to effectively manage, process, and analyze it.

Data by itself is just information that cannot provide actionable insights until it is well analyzed and clear insights are drawn. This is why analytics is a crucial aspect and thanks to technology, there are plenty of visual analytics technologies that help transform data and information into actionable insights. See below image:

Knowing the Right Audience for Your Dashboard- The MAD Framework

Different dashboards serve different audience and must therefore be tailored to meet the needs of the target audience. The Monitor, Analyze and Detail framework provides a clear outline of what a dashboard should comprise of, based on the most relevant aspects to the audience.

To differentiate various dashboards according to the MAD pyramid, there are various aspects to look out for.
Monitor: Look at a glance data summary over a period of time to monitor the performance
Analyze: Look at various factors to identify any patterns or spot outliers
Detail: You go deeper into granular data to obtain insights at a user or operational level. At this level, we look out for what resonates with the "team" the most.

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators are a highlight of areas that need attention and they monitor the overall health of a company.
They: Track progress against business goals
Inform strategic decision making
Provide a basis for operational improvement
See below image for a breakdown of KPIs from different perspectives:

HOW TO CREATE AND USE PIVOT TABLE CALCULATED FIELDS

Katie — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:51:10 +0000

Pivot table and Calculated Fields

A Pivot Table is a tool in Microsoft Excel that allows you to quickly summarize huge datasets. PivotTables are great ways to summarize, analyze, explore, and present summary data, and in Excel. On the other hand, a Pivot Table Calculated Field is a feature that allows you to create a new field within your Pivot Table to do and display calculations based on values of fields in your dataset.

How to Create a Pivot Table

Select the cells you want to create a PivotTable from.
Select Insert > PivotTable.
Under Choose the data that you want to analyze, select Select a table or range.
In Table/Range, verify the cell range.
Under Choose where you want the PivotTable report to be placed, select New worksheet to place the PivotTable in a new worksheet or Existing worksheet and then select the location you want the PivotTable to appear.
Select OK.
To add a field to your PivotTable, select the field name checkbox in the PivotTables Fields pane.
To move a field from one area to another, drag the field to the target area.

How to Create a Calculated Field in a Pivot Table and where to Use it

Adding a Calculated Field to the Pivot Table
Let’s see how to add a Pivot Table Calculated Field in an existing Pivot Table.
Suppose you have a Pivot Table and you want to calculate the profit margin for each retailer:

Here are the steps to add a Pivot Table Calculated Field:
• Select any cell in the Pivot Table.
• Go to Pivot Table Tools –> Analyze –> Calculations –> Fields,Items, & Sets.
• From the drop-down, select Calculated Field.
• In the Insert Calculated Filed dialog box:
• Give it a name by entering it in the Name field.
• In the Formula field, create the formula you want for the calculated field. Note that you can choose from the field names listed below it. In a case where, the formula is ‘= Profit/ Sales’. You can either manually enter the field names or double click on the field name listed in the Fields box.
• Click on Add and close the dialog box.
As soon as you add the Calculated Field, it will appear as one of the fields in PivotTable Fields list.

Now you can use this calculated field as any other Pivot Table field (note that you can not use Pivot Table Calculated Field as a report filter or slicer).

MEASURES VS CALCULATED COLUMNS IN POWER BI

Katie — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:41:53 +0000

In my beginner era as a Power Bi expert, differentiating between a calculated column and a measure, and when to use them was a major challenge. The two are important aspects in Power BI and understanding when and where to use them is key. This article will delve into the two concepts and explain the circumstances where we should use a calculated column or a measure.

Measures in Power BI

A Measure is a calculation created using DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) that is performed on the fly as you interact with your reports in Power BI. Measures are used in visuals, pivot tables, and pivot charts. Unlike Calculated Columns, the calculation is not pre-computed. Putting it in simpler terms, measures are efficient for aggregated calculations.

Calculated Columns in Power BI

A Calculated Column is a column that you add to an existing table in the data model in Power BI. It’s computed during the data loading phase, and the values are stored in the Power BI model. The formula for a Calculated Column is calculated for each row in a table.

Measure Vs Calculated Column

SQL vs Programming Languages: Is SQL a Programming Language?

Katie — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 06:38:26 +0000

SQL

This article tries to solve the never ending debate of whether SQL is a programming language or not. As the name goes, SQL; is a structured query language that helps manage, clean and manipulate data that is stored in relational databases. With SQL, one has the ability to update records, query data, identify relations between sets of data, and much more. However, it is important to note that SQL helps one do this on a condition that the data being worked on is in a relational structure. SQL is limited to accessing and managing datasets using specified application domains.

Programming Language

On the other hand, traditional programming languages such as python are general purpose programming languages that have the ability to write code that the computer can execute to perform specific functions. "A programming language is a formal set of instructions used to produce a variety of machine code outputs, such as software applications, websites, or system operations." All these are categorized as general purpose languages which sets them apart from domain specific languages.

The Debate

Now that we clearly understand what is SQL and its ability and what a programming language is, is it right to classify SQL as a programming language?
SQL fits the description of a scripting language and traditional programming languages are general purpose and meet the requirements of a programming language.

WHY DATA ANALYTICS?

Katie — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 05:54:29 +0000

Approximately 3 out of every 5 people I meet ask me why I chose to specialize in data analytics given the choice variety that a BSc. in Economics and Statistics can guarantee you. Well, the simple answer to this is that pursuing data is a call from within. Personally, my biggest drive is the urge to build a legacy of satisfaction in what I do and data analytics gives me that and more.
With pro skills in data analysis, specialists are able to guide businesses make key decisions based on carefully analyzed insights as opposed to following intuitions or as they call it "guts." In this era of information and social media, there are increasing chances of misguidance and misinformation daily, some cases occurring maliciously and others unknowingly. This is why businesses have been embracing analytics as it provides assessable insights leading to informed decision making. That being said, data analytics is a rapidly growing field with a wide range of possibilities; and for this particular reason, this is your sign to pursue that dream of becoming a DATA ANALYST.