Power BI provides a plethora of data analytics and visualization tools that allow the user to create informative dashboards or reports and use them to make data-driven decisions. We can easily pool data from different sources and convert that into valuable insights.
Among these, the Power BI heatmap is one of the most popular visualizations that data scientists use to show distributed networks, advertisement impact, etc. So, let us learn how to create these visualizations in Power BI Desktop.
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Power BI Heatmap
A heatmap is a type of custom visualization that business analysts use to show the relationship between two variables plotted on the map in the form of different color patches. It helps the user to visualize hidden patterns and observe the change across each axis.
In a heatmap, the spots where data density is the highest are represented with the darkest color, followed by lighter shades proportional to the density. This color pattern can either be represented in the form of tables, histograms, or geographical maps.
Applications of Power BI Heatmap
Below are the five different ways organizations use heatmaps in the Power BI dashboards:
- Getting an overview of the marketplace: Because heatmaps are good at quickly visualizing the data, a lot of businesses and customers use them to identify clusters of existing and potential customers. You can also map potential customers against office locations for better analysis.
- Refining distribution networks: Enterprises can also use heatmaps to identify new places for distribution or service centers. By analyzing customer density, using the color patches, companies can map the locations from where they can provide efficient services to the maximum number of customers.
- Analyzing third-party data for marketing campaigns: By mapping the data sets gathered from different websites, you can easily identify the places to run your marketing campaigns and reach out to relevant customers. For instance, you can use the demographics data to see where the majority of your target customers live and the time they are most likely to see your campaigns.
- Identifying the areas for expanding franchise: Demographics heatmaps can also be used to identify the areas where a company can expand and open a new franchise to drive maximum profit. With radius analysis, one can create clusters of customers within the expected area around their new franchise.
- Studying disease trends or areas for further investigation: By deploying healthcare data sets on heat maps, we can quickly analyze various factors that might affect the rate of cancer patients in particular regions. For example, you add pollution and data about people’s lifestyles and see if it is related to the increasing number of cancer patients in the region.
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Now that you have the knowledge of what heatmaps in Power BI are and the different ways to implement them, let us move forward and create a Power BI heatmap custom visualization.
How to create a Heatmap in Power BI?
There are two types of Power BI heatmap legends, the heatmap visual and the heatmap table. So, let us discuss them in detail and learn how to create them on Power BI Desktop.
Power BI Heatmap Visual
In the following steps, we will be creating a Power BI heatmap for earthquakes occurring in a given period of time. However, the process is pretty much similar to creating other categories.
- Load the sample data sets in either CSV or Excel format and move to the Power BI Desktop interface.
- Click on the Heatmap icon under the Visualization panel, otherwise click on the More option and add the heatmap visualization from the Get more visuals option.
- Now, it is time to add different fields and data variables to create a heat map.
- Add the data variables in their respective fields as shown in the picture below:
- A basic heatmap visualization will appear on the interface.
- In the above picture, the areas with more earthquakes are highlighted in red, while the areas with fewer earthquakes are highlighted in blue.
- Although we can differentiate between the places with different earthquake frequencies, it is still not that eye-catching.
- So, to improve the heatmap, go to the Format option in the Visualization panel and change the renderer type to Heat.
- Now, assign different colors to various levels, as per your choice.
- At last, your Power BI heatmap visualization is ready to be used in reports or dashboards.
Power BI Heatmap Table
Below are the steps to create a table Heatmap in Power BI:
- Load your data sets into the Power BI Desktop interface and select Tablevisual from the visualization panel.
- Add the MonthNamevariable to the rows section and DayofWeekName to the columns section. Also, add the SalesAmountto the Values section.
- A standard table will be created on the Power BI interface.
- Now, change the style of your table to Minimal, and turn on the background and font color.
- Finally, change the colors of your table as per your requirements and you will be ready with a table heatmap in Power BI.
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Conclusion
Hope you got all the information regarding heatmaps and how to create them in Power BI. These maps can be used to represent the relationships between seemingly unrelated data sets and give the user a new perspective on the market situation. You can find more Power BI heatmap examples in our Power BI community.
For more information on Power BI, visit our Business Intelligence Community.