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jeroenterheerdt's avatar
jeroenterheerdt
Icon for Microsoft Employee rankMicrosoft Employee
2 years ago

Share your thoughts on visual calculations (preview)

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General Comment
Kofod's avatar
Kofod
New Member
2 years ago

Hi...

 

Feature: Sorting usings "Visual Calculation" Measures

 

I was messing around with visual calculations, considering where it would be really usefull, then I thought that sorting columns like "ABS([mymeasure])" calculations would be a nice usecase for visual calculations. However, it is not available as a sorting column. 

I think you should consider adding this feature.

 

EDIT:

Just realised that it is because I hide the "visual calculation" - if I unhide, I get access to the sorting VC. I think it should be sortable when it is hidden as well. (it does not work to sort and then hide).

 

regards

jeroenterheerdt's avatar
jeroenterheerdt
Icon for Microsoft Employee rankMicrosoft Employee
2 years ago

so if you hide you cannot sort. the reason is because it would be hard for a viewer to understand how the visual is sorted if it's sorted by something they can't see. What would you prefer here?

  • Kofod's avatar
    Kofod
    New Member
    2 years ago

    In many cases I would agree, and that would be a consideration while designing a visual.

     

    However, that many cases sorting could be relevant on something you do not want to show. I might want to sort by the variance actuals vs Budget, while showing the actual numbers as columns in a chart. In this cases the variance I want to sort by could even be the absolute version, i.e. the biggest variances positive and negativ alike, while I'm not interested in showing the absolute numbers in the chart. So being able to hide these is very relevant. Currently the workaround I use is to have the ABS variance in the tooltip, while I actually do not want it there either.

     

    Hope this makes sense ðŸ™‚

    • jeroenterheerdt's avatar
      jeroenterheerdt
      Icon for Microsoft Employee rankMicrosoft Employee
      2 years ago

      that makes sense, thanks for explaining. How would you envision your viewers to understand that though? Would you not tell them? Let them figure it out on their own? Show some kind of message / indicator that the visual they are looking at is sorted by something they can't see? Alternatives?

      • Kofod's avatar
        Kofod
        New Member
        2 years ago

        Well, I would use many of the same features I would use already when a measure or visual or page needs some extra explaination, like

        • Info functionality mouse over
        • Heading / sub header
        • A transparent picture that can be uhidden using bookmark that utilizes speech bubbles to explain / document functionalities on the page (a very versatile option)
        • Education of users / documentation (in many instances the sorting comes from a requirement in the first place)
        • Sometimes it is logical to the specific users, needing no explaination
        • other

        As I see it there are many options to achieve knowledge / understanding on the users part. And we need to remember that the user can change the sorting as well, and this could also be one of the options available to them.