Ribbon Charts in Power BI

Power BI offers several visuals to help you understand the data, but when it comes to displaying changes in ranking over time, there is nothing better than a ribbon chart. Ribbon Charts are now included as a standard visualization option in Power BI. Ribbon Charts are useful for visualizing how values are ranked across different categories. They also help you track how those rankings shift over time. In this blog, you will explore Ribbon Charts with benefits and best practices.

Table of Contents:

• What are Ribbon Charts in Power BI?
• Advantages of Ribbon Chart in Power BI
• When to Use Ribbon Charts?
• How to Create a Ribbon Chart in Power BI?
• Drawbacks of Ribbon Charts in Power BI
• Best Practices for Ribbon Charts
• Conclusion

What are Ribbon Charts in Power BI?

A Ribbon Chart is a Power BI visualization that demonstrates how various categories’ rankings change over time. Each ribbon represents a category and has its position denoting its rank at each point on the timeline. The chart facilitates the identification of increasing or decreasing performance. It is particularly helpful in comparing trends of product sales or market share, and provides a more visual and interactive view of the data.

Advantages of Ribbon Chart in Power BI

• Dynamic rank visualization: They clearly illustrate how rankings of categories change over time, therefore revealing trends and changes in performance.
• Improved storytelling: Ribbons flow and capture the viewers’ attention, and narrate complicated data in an understandable way to the audience.
• Temporal comparisons: Ribbon Charts enable the simultaneous performance comparison across multiple categories.
• Power BI interactivity: Users can hover over individual ribbons and see details of how things performed before that day and after, and provide better data exploration and analysis.
• Visual appeal: The unique look of Ribbon Charts makes reports and dashboards look cooler and more visually appealing to others.

When to Use Ribbon Charts?

Ribbon charts offer several advantages in situations where it is important to capture rankings over time. Below are some theoretical considerations and practical considerations:

Theoretical considerations:

• Time Series: Ribbon charts can easily capture temporal data(data that includes time-related information); They are particularly suitable for time series analysis, as the intent is often to identify how data is changing over time.
• Ordinal Data: Ordinal data is both a type of data that conveys rank order and an appropriate venue for using ribbon charts; Ribbon charts can highlight change in an order or rank.
• Comparative Dynamics: For analyses that explore the comparative dynamics of categories, ribbon charts provide easy-to-interpret visuals of how the entities outperform or underperform each other over time.

Use case:

• Sales Performance Tracking: Visualizing the rankings of products or regions in sales over several quarters.
• Market Share Tracking: Visualizing the movements of companies’ shares over time in an industry.
• Individual Performance: Tracking employee selections over evaluation periods and performance ranks.
• Budget Efficiency: Comparing how departments are executing their budgets during the budget year.

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How to Create a Ribbon Chart in Power BI?

Let’s understand the process of creating a ribbon chart with the help of a dataset.

Step 1: Load the Dataset into Power BI

Click Home > Get Data > Text/CSV

After following the steps, your data will be loaded into Power BI.

This is how your dataset looks after being loaded into Power BI.

Step 2: Insert a Ribbon Chart

Click the Ribbon Chart from the Visualization pane.

This is the visualization pane in which all graphs are present.

Step 3: Add Fields

• Axis: Drag Release Year
• Legend: Drag Platform
• Values: Drag Views (millions)

Result:

Explanation: The ribbon chart is used to show the number of people who watched shows on Netflix (dark blue) and Amazon Prime (light blue) each year; A thicker ribbon means that the platform had the highest views that year.

Drawbacks of Ribbon Charts in Power BI

1. Restricted to Comparing Different Ranks

Ribbon Charts are best suited for reviewing and comparing ranks or ordered values over time. If you are interested in examining raw numerical trends (without any ordering or ranking), a line or bar chart may be a better option.

2. Too Many Categories Cause Overcrowding

Too many categories can clutter the chart, making it difficult to interpret.

3. Intended for time-series data

Ribbon Charts are designed for datasets that include a temporal (time) aspect. If you don’t have a proper date/time axis, the visual loses significance.

4. Limited Customization

The customization options for Ribbon Charts are quite limited in comparison to some other visuals in Power BI, such as options for ribbon curvature, spacing, or even displaying exact ranking.

5. Can Mislead Without Context

If not clearly labelled or paired with visuals that provide context, people could confuse what the ribbons represent (e.g., rank versus value). Therefore, it is important to provide visuals with good tooltips and a legend (a key which is used to show what the colors or symbols in the chart represent.)

Best Practices for Ribbon Charts

You can enhance the effectiveness of Ribbon Charts by following these best practices:

• Contain the Number of Categories: Avoid excessive categories so that the chart is not crowded with information.
• Use Different Colors: Ensure that each category has a unique contrasting color for differentiation.
• Sort Your Data Correctly: Make sure the time axis is sorted appropriately to reflect a progression/productivity over time.
• Have Context: Having titles and labels, and tool tips promotes better understanding for users.
• Combine with Other Visuals: Using Ribbon Chart together with other visualizations (for example, bar charts and line graphs) will ensure a more complete analysis.
• Responsive Page: Make sure it is responsive and displays on other devices.

Conclusion

Ribbon Charts in Power BI provide an opportunity to visualize ranking changes over time, which offers a unique experience. Ribbon charts are designed in such a way that allows users to present data effectively and provide detailed analysis. By understanding better practices and appropriately including them in your reports, you can create unique experiences and highlight data in an interesting and informative way.

To learn more about Power BI and its functions, check out this Power BI Course and also explore Power BI Interview Questions prepared by industry experts.

Ribbon charts in Power BI- FAQs