Fundamentals of developing Charts using SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 with an emphasis on visualization trends, including a sample of Power View in the upcoming release of SQL Server 2012.

1. SSRS Chart
Anatomy 101
Angel Abundez
Business Intelligence Consultant
DesignMind

2. 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

3. 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

4. Improved Visualization in 2008 R2
• White Chart Area
• Light Grid Lines
• No Black borders
• Condensed menu

5. 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

6. Even Better DataViz in Power View

7. Power View Design Tenents
• Less is more
• Easy for the user
• 2 clicks to ROI
• 1 way to do things

8. 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”

9. Keep Visualization in Mind
1. Group the Data
2. Sequence the Data
3. Prioritize the Data
Stephen Few(2004) Show Me the Numbers

10. Decompose a Chart
Series Title(s)
Legend(s)
Grid Lines
Axes Titles
Chart Area(s)
Horizontal Axis
Vertical Axis

11. Decompose a Chart
• Demo – Creating a Chart

12. 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

13. Demo
• Monthly Sales Target
• Yearly Sales Time-Series
• Product Dashboard (1-click Highlight & Filter)

14. 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

15. Keep in Touch!
Keep in touch!
• Twitter: @AngelStreamline
• Email: angel@designmind.com
• Website/Blog: angelsbiblog.com
• UNDER CONSTRUCTION