Conduct time series analysis
Time series analysis involves analyzing a series of data over time in order to identify meaningful information and trends and even make predictions. The result of time series analysis is the best data that you can use for forecasting activities.
In Power BI, you can use various visuals to observe how your data progresses over time and detect any major events that might have disrupted your data. For example, Gantt charts are useful for project planning, while stock movement semantic models help in tracking stock trends.
To conduct a time series analysis, use visualization types suited for displaying trends and changes over time, such as line charts, area charts, or scatter charts.
Use the Play Axis visual
You can also import custom visuals from Microsoft AppSource, like the Play Axis animation visual, which acts as a dynamic slicer to compellingly display time trends and patterns without user interaction.
Note
Some organizations prefer not to use custom visuals for security or other reasons. Before you import custom visuals, check with your organization to see whether they're allowed. If they're not allowed, you can use the scatter chart visual and its play axis instead.
Consider a scenario where you're developing a Sales report. The Sales team wants to study the quarterly sales trends and identify which models sell better, depending on the time of the season. You decide to use two visuals: a scatter chart and a line chart, for time series analysis. You then enhance those visuals with animation so the Sales team can learn how the sales data changes over time.
You start by adding your visuals to the report page to show the sales data and then importing the custom visual.
With the new visual selected, add the Quarter field to the Play Axis visual. Animation controls then become available on the visual.
You can resize, reposition, and customize the visual's formatting to match the other visuals on the page. Key formatting options include:
- Animation Settings: Control play functionality, such as autostart, looping, and animation speed.
- Colors: Adjust overall color or individual control button colors.
- Enable Caption On: Toggle text display next to the visual and adjust its formatting.
After configuring the visual, select the Play button and watch how the data in each visual on the page evolves over the time. You can use the control buttons to pause the animation, restart it, and further analysis.
