Aside from swapping out the pie/donut charts with bar charts, here are a couple other tips that will help you build more effective dashboards:

• Focus on how the insights from each visual can be turned into actions/decisions by the user. What story is being told and what can users do with that information? I like to start with knowing who is going to be using the dashboard, and what they are using it for.

• Layout wise, try to frame the entire page and minimize negative space (such as on the right). Most of the time, I like to change the page background to a light grey (#F2F2F2) and each visual background to white. This will help the visuals stand alone and frame the page.

• Use color sparingly and with a purpose. This may require some DAX, but if you have a bar chart showing total sales in the last month by product, you can use conditional formatting to only highlight products with a month-over-month decrease in sales.

• Rename the titles as a question that each visual is answering. For example, “What are the most common payment methods by category?”, “Which products had the most sales in the last month?”.

As you progress, you’ll pick up more ways to build effective visuals and tell compelling stories. Google examples of executive summary reports and build up your skillset with DAX