Session Abstract

The visual design theory behind reports people actually use. I've watched the same thing happen on two different Power BI reports built from identical data, for the same audience. One got opened every Monday. One got exported to Excel and never touched Power BI again. The difference wasn't the DAX. It was Gestalt grouping, pre-attentive attributes, the 60-30-10 color rule: things most report builders have never heard of, and all of which decide in the first four seconds whether anyone trusts what they're looking at. This talk pulls apart the actual theory (Colin Ware's pre-attentive attributes, Tufte's data-ink ratio, the eye-tracking research behind why dashboards get scanned top-left to bottom-right) and turns it into rules you can apply immediately: the 3-30-300 layout rule, why a KPI without a target is decoration, and five things to refuse the moment someone asks for them (yes, gauges are on the list). It's built for Power BI, but every principle in it works on any screen you're asking someone to trust. You'll leave with a framework, not a mood board.

Note to event organizers

This session can be agnoistic to technology Power BI just happens to be my subject but this can relate to any UI/UX

Duncan Boyne

I’m a Power BI and Power Platform consultant with a background in turning messy, real-world data into something people actually want to use. I spend most of my time working with Power BI, Dataverse, Power Apps, and Power Automate, helping organisations move from “we have data” to “we trust our data”. I’m particularly interested in report design, semantic models, governance, and making complex concepts feel simple. Outside of client work, I’m heavily involved in the Power Platform community. I run the Norfolk Power Platform User Group, help organise regional events, and regularly speak at user groups and conferences across the UK. My sessions are practical, honest, and based on lessons learned the hard way, with a focus on things you can apply the next day.

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