What Industry What City Research Tool

Follow this link to interact with the dashboard: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AjLEpw37FeB1gawOW6TWpHSq6TuqRQ?e=poEg7t

NOTE: If you do not have Microsoft 365, functionality and viewing capability will be limited

Background The motivation behind this dashboard is to provide a tool for high school seniors to explore national trends on careers and salaries. If for whatever reason your PowerBI License has been revoked, or your Tableau Public has been compromised and you have a project with a fairly quick turnaround, fear not for you can complete in Excel.

Key Concepts There were some really cool concepts here, but here are some concepts that I think will change your Excel life...or at least expand the knowledge base a bit

1. Conditional Calculations - most every Excel whiz has used some sort of IFs formula, so that's not a game changer. This dashboard however, employed that in combination with Data Validation, or better put - a conditional calculation. A fair amount of data preparation is required on this, but once it's done, it's done AND you'll have created something that feels real efficient and somewhat dynamic
2. Dynamically Highlighting Series - by "Series" I am referring to your selection when you go to edit a chart -the bar in this case. Background data prep of the conditional calculations required an AverageIFs formula for Average Annual Wages. Because Data Validation was set up, when the user selects the Finance Industry heading, all relevant information for Finance is returned. Behind the scenes an additional column that reads the same data, will format the chart based on the selection. So when Finance is selected as the Industry , a blue shade is applied only to the Finance bar on the bar chart, while everything else will be gray.
3. Form Controls - the radio buttons for the map and the spin buttons (allows for clicking up and down through the Industry/Bar Chart) is a really nice add. In order to implement, the Developer tab needs to be enabled (can add through Customize Ribbon). An INDEX function will help you pull off the spin buttons
4. Using Color Strategically - if you were given 10 seconds and 10 seconds only to to look at the dashboard, it's likely you wouldn't be able to digest all that is presented. You will, however; be able to quickly identify the Wage and Employment metrics. It would also be much more intuitive when given more than 10 seconds to analyze. A deliberate and strategic approach with color will make your dashboard stand out!

Observations & Reflections There are even more great concepts in this dashboard, but these are the ones that I think help provide a more comparable interaction with Tableau and PowerBI