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The Data God of Form - Chris Hamill

Christopher Wagner • November 23, 2019

It's all about the User Experience

Linked In Profile: Link

Blog: Link


Data God Qualifications:

Chris may be new to the position of Data God, but his place amongst the gods is unquestionable. The UX/UI that Chris has created in Power BI is second to none and inspires others to do more.


What makes for a great Power BI UX/UI?

Great Power BI UX/UI takes a great deal of work. You must know your audience, know how to work with your tool, gather feedback, fail fast, and iterate often. The big key is focusing on how you can avoid overwhelming consumers of your report readers.


Top 8 Report Design Tips

The God of Form recommends that you focus on 8 design elements to be useful in your reporting:

  1. Margins - Don't let visuals go to the borders.
  2. Distribution - Making sure all of your visual elements are evenly distributed can make reports much easier to read and understand.
  3. Alignment - Visuals that are not aligned with each other can be extremely distracting. Always take the time to line everything up before you publish it.
  4. Branding - Make sure that you use appropriate branding throughout your report development.
  5. Coloring - Consistent colors help focus people on the story. Try to limit the number of different colors. We're not at a circus here.
  6. Consistency - Having a standard layout, fonts, sizes, and positioning can help make reports more consumable.
  7. Accessibility - Taking the time to make things accessible can really help broaden the reach of your analytics. Many people are color blind. Don't solely rely upon colors to tell your story.
  8. Backgrounds - This is Chris's secret sauce. Check out his multiple blog posts on the subject.


Data God Fun Fact:

Every time Chris visits Wisconsin, someone takes him to Cafe Benelux. Not 100% sure how this happens... maybe a god of Cafe's has something to do with this? Regardless- if you are in Milwaukee, check out Cafe Benelux. It's very good.


History:

Chris has only recently joined the ranks of Data Gods. Previously, Chris was a Finance Analyst for Microsoft, and before that, Starbucks.

Notable UX/UI Blog Posts

Background Concepts for Power BI - Link

User-Friendly Drill Down Experiences - Link

Overlays for True Self Service Reporting - Link


CHRIS WAGNER, MBA MVP

Analytics Architect, Mentor, Leader, and Visionary

Chris has been working in the Data and Analytics space for nearly 20 years. Chris has dedicated his professional career to making data and information accessible to the masses. A significant component in making data available is continually learning new things and teaching others from these experiences. To help people keep up with this ever-changing landscape, Chris frequently posts on LinkedIn and to this blog.
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