Lesson 34 - Ribbon Chart in Power BI Desktop

Ribbon charts are one of the most powerful visualizations from which we can identify the highest rank of categorical data. It is more like a stacked column chart. Adding legends to the chart make ribbons join the chart by showing the high and low values using different colors.

How to Proceed?

Step 1

Launch power BI desktop app and open the new report page and import the data required. 

Refer Lesson 7 - Power BI Datasets to build visuals 

Step 2

In “visualizations” pane click on “Ribbon chart” which is highlighted in the given figure.

Step 3

Drag the data fields into “Field Section” that you want to analyze.  

X-axis: Represents categories -Year

Y-axis: Represents numerical value that you want to display within each category- Participants

Legend: Explain the groups in categories - Continent

Step 4

Customizing the appearance

You can customize the appearance of the visual.  You can change Title, Font size, Style, Colours and Data labels. Click anywhere on the visual and set the below properties in the Format section.

Refer Lesson 6 - Formatting the visuals in Power BI Desktop

Additionally in Ribbon chart we have options to change the color of the ribbons.

This improves clarity and helps viewers easily identify and understand the distinctions between level of ranking in categories

“Reverse order” option allows you to rearrange the order of data series easily. 

Connector color: We can also keep the ribbon color off by using option “Connector color”. Also, in this visual we fixed the ribbon transparency to 28%.

Border: To keep border to the ribbons, keep the Border toggle on.

Spacing: It represents the space between the ribbons

In Power BI, Cross filtering feature in ribbon chart allows you to focus on specific data points by interacting with other visuals on the report.

The space between the two bars in ribbon chart represents the change between the last category to current category with rank details in tooltip which makes users understand better

Step 5 Save the visual

Finally, your Ribbon chart is ready. Click save button to save the visual.

When to use Ribbon chart?

Ribbon chart can be used when we want to visualize flow between categories with trends along with its ranking. From the chart we can easily identify which data have highest rank

Pros

• It is more powerful in showing flow of data with rank which represent the clear representation of data
• It is well suited for displaying sequential categorical data
• We can compare the categories using this chart
• More interactive and visually appealing 

Cons

• Visual become more complex with a large number of categories in data
• Complex ribbon charts with large dataset impact the report performance

Conclusion

The ribbon chart is a valuable visualization tool in Power BI, offers unique advantages to display the flow and relationships between categorical dimensions 

Tags	Power BI
Useful links	https://www.tutorialgateway.org/create-a-ribbon-chart-in-power-bi/#google_vignette https://www.tutorialgateway.org/format-power-bi-ribbon-chart/
MS Learn Modules	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-visualization-types-for-reports-and-q-and-a
Test Your Knowledge	Quiz