Re: Stephen Few's Show Me the Numbers Theme

thehiers · ‎03-21-2020

Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten Second Edition, by Stephen Few is described as "the simplest, most practical, and most comprehensive guide to table and graph design available" (inside book flap).

The JSON theme file used by this Power BI report attempts to implement Few's suggestions including his recommended color palettes.

The JSON file specifies how selected tables and visuals should be formatted. Because of their poor ability to communicate quantitative information, Few counsels against the use of visuals such as the pie, waterfall, and funnel charts. For this reason, I have not included formatting for "silly charts that are best forsaken".

The visuals and tables that are included in the JSON have been formatted according to Few's recommendations, to the best of my understanding and to the best of Power BI's capabilities.

Please don't hesitate to suggest any improvements. Please include the pertinent page number!

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mike_honey · ‎10-29-2021

This looks great - thanks for sharing. Huge Stephen Few too.

I started from your medium palette and made my own version, with some tweaks to suit my preferences.

chaz2jerry · ‎05-30-2020

Template looks great, but wanted to let you know that when applying the template, it changed all my existing Slicer titles to "change the slicer title". Seems this is intentional in the JSON codes (using Title instead of Slicer Header), but I don't understanding the reasoning. Anyway, I reformated the JSON attached by removing this part (Slicer title and Slicer header codes).

thehiers · ‎02-11-2022

Sorry for the very late reply. The slicer title is intentional. By default, a slicer is titled using the Slicer header, which has limited formatting options (can't be centered, etc.). The Title option in the format tab has more options. The idea is to have a visual reminder to the developer to add the slicer title. As you say, the JSON can easily be changed if that behavior is not desirable.