Getting started with Power BI Report Builder
Creating a friendly and intuitive start screen experience for new and returning people.
tl;dr
Fall 2019 Hackathon winning project! I worked with one engineer to design and code an updated 'getting started' experience for Power BI Report Builder during a five day hackathon. Our goals were to modernize the current experience in Report Builder while also adding the ability to connect to your Power BI account. The project won the coveted 'PM choice award' at the hackathon and we received a rare Paginated Report Bear t-shirt as the award. This interface is set to be released in the spring 2020 Report Builder update with a few minor changes
A bit of context
SQL Server Report Builder
CIRCA 2016
Report Builder is a tool for authoring paginated reports. When you design a paginated report, you're creating a report definition that specifies what data to retrieve, where to get it, and how to display it. When you run the report, the report processor takes the report definition you have specified, retrieves the data, and combines it with the report layout to generate the report. You can preview your report in Report Builder. Then publish your report to a Reporting Services report server in native mode or in SharePoint integrated mode (2016 and earlier).
Wait, what are paginated reports?
These reports can be printed or shared. They're called "paginated" because they're formatted to fit well on a page. They display all the data in a table, even if the table spans multiple pages. They're sometimes called "pixel perfect" because you can control their report page layout exactly. Paginated reports are based on the RDL report technology in SQL Server Reporting Services.
Power BI Report Builder
JUNE 2019
Power BI Paginated Report Builder also a tool for authoring paginated reports but it has been optimized to work with Power BI service. A user can connect to their Power BI datasets, publish reports directly to Power BI, and access and edit paginated reports from their workspace. You preview your report in Report Builder. Then publish your report to the Power BI service.
The problem
The current getting started experience is inefficient and often quickly dismissed by users. The most-used actions are not at the front of the experience and there is no way to connect to your Power BI account. It is also very old looking and doesn't match the Power BI theme colors or components. Overall Report Builder is very difficult to use and there is great opportunity to create an elegant and simplified getting started experience in order to aid in report creation.
Fall 2019 Hackathon
At least twice a year Power BI sponsors a Hackathon. For the fall 2019 hackathon I worked in a team of two (one designer and one engineer) to design and code an updated 'getting started' experience. In order to complete it in five days we used all the same options that were available in the original design but modernized it and improved the discoverability of both promoted items such as connecting to a Power BI dataset and most-used features such as starting with a black report. We also created a simple prompt to have a user sign in to their Power BI account in order to easily connect to shared and certified datasets as well as publish reports directly to the service.
My quick strategy
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The #1 report selected is a blank letter size report so I will make that the default selection
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Make the page size very apparent so people don't create the wrong report size for printing
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New dataset have Power BI dataset as #1 option to drive usage through Power BI
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Add pivots under 'Open report' to open a report directly from your Power BI workspace
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Give support and contact options within the getting started screen
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Modernize the input controls
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Improve visibility of core actions
V1. Mockups
My first design was based off other Microsoft products but included a page setup experience within the getting started page. This screen included a lot of information for the user and was a bit too busy to comprehend. It added functionality but did not simplify the already complicated experience. Also since we only had one week to complete the project we decided this needed to be cut down in order to be able to fully implement the design.
V2. Wireframe
My next design worked to simplify the larger experience I had created and removed all pivots to other pages. By providing one simple screen to start we reduced the number of clicks and overall complexity for people. This design also used all the same connections that were already available in Report Builder so we didn't have to create anything new for this Hackathon project and could complete a full concept in five days. With more time I could expand on this design and complete some research to really understand how people are interacting with this screen and how I can best help them instead of just relying on my intuition.
Final design and redline
My final design was delivered to my engineering partner on day two and we worked together to write the front-end code and make it look as close to this design as possible. In the end our PM loved the project and we won the 'PM Choice Award'.
Next steps
We are now working to release this new getting started experience with the Power BI Report Builder Spring 2020 release with a few changes based on further feedback I have received. Some of the changes I want to do is look at adding more color depth instead of just using all white background with white buttons as that is kind of hard to see. Also working to add templates back in to the scope of this project so people can start with a report with basic formatting instead of a blank report screen.