Design Insights

An insight is a visual representation of an answer to a business question. It can take the form of a table, chart, gauge, or KPI. Multiple, related insights on the same page form a Dashboard.

To learn more about the types of visualizations you can use on a dashboard, see Insight Visualizations.

Each dimension of the Insight contains (and is defined by) one or more filters. Understanding the function of each of these dimensions will help you structure your data:

  • Measures: It is easiest to define an Insight if you begin by thinking about what you want your Insight to measure, e.g. units sold or revenue would be a Measure.
  • Grouping: Next, the grouping dimension would be defined by how you want to group, or slice, the measure you choose. For example, you can group by category, or by a time period.
  • Coloring: Finally, the coloring dimension would help with making visual distinctions. For example, if you choose to group Revenue (i.e. Measure dimension) by Year (i.e. Grouping dimension), you can use the coloring dimension to display each year in a different color. You can also add an additional filter to the coloring dimension to enable a drill-down. Some visualizations, such as Grouped-Column Charts, require the coloring dimension to be defined.

Add Insights

  1. Navigate to a Dashboard.
  2. Select the + (add icon) in the action bar.
  3. Select a Visualization in the Choose a Visualization dialog.
  4. In the Analyzer, add columns from the Data Panel to the measure, grouping, and coloring trays.

    • If the data panel does not contain any tables or columns, select the + icon for a list of the available tables to choose from.
    • All visualizations will have a Measure field, but the type of visualization you choose will determine the availability of the Grouping and Coloring dimensions.
  5. Edit the Properties and position of each dimension added to the insight. To do this:

    • Select the down caret (⌵) on the pill of the corresponding dimension’s to open its Properties Menu
    • Drag and drop pills to position them in the order you want them to appear in the visualization.
  6. Add a title to the Insight.
  7. Select Done to save the insight to your dashboard.

Edit Insights

For a given insight:

  1. Select Edit (pen icon) on the insight tile. From here you can make changes to the following:

    • Add new columns from the data panel to the measure, grouping, or coloring trays.
    • Select the down caret (﹀) on a pill to edit the column properties.
    • Select the X on any pill to remove them from the measure, grouping, or coloring dimension trays.
    • Select the Choose Visualization (chart icon) in the action bar to change the visualization type.
    • Add an Insight Description.
    • Change the title of the Insight.
  2. Select Done in the action bar to save your changes.

View Chart as Table

This feature allows users to switch a Chart Insight into a Table Insight (aggregated/regular) right from the dashboard view without needing edit privileges.

To convert a Chart into a Table:

  1. Navigate to a dashboard.
  2. Hover over a chart Insight and select More Options (kebab icon).
  3. Select View as table from the More Options menu.
  4. Choose Regular or Aggregated.
  5. Select Return (circular arrow) to return to the original view.

View Insights in Full-Screen Mode

When Full Screen Mode option is enabled, users to toggle from one Insight to another in a dashboard, by selecting the Insight from a drop-down list.

To enable Full Screen Mode:

  1. Navigate to a dashboard.
  2. Select More Options (kebab icon) on the insight tile.
  3. Select Focus to enable full screen mode.
  4. Toggle between insights using the following methods:

    • Select the List icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight to choose another Insight.
    • To go to the next or previous Insight, select the arrows in the upper right-hand corner of the screen or use the keyboard arrows.
  5. To return to the original chart view, select Return (back arrow) or select View Original from More Options.
  6. Select Close (X icon )in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to return to the dashboard view.

View the Query Plan

Incorta generates a query plan for each measure in an insight. The query plan reveals the direct data map path that the Incorta Analytics Service uses to retrieve or calculate the measure.

To view the query plan:

  1. In the Measure tray, open the Properties menu for a pill.
  2. In the Advanced tab, select Query Plan.

Define a Sort Order

Set the sort order for each filter in the dimension so that as the user drills down, the sort order remains consistent.

To set a sort order:

  1. Open the Properties Menu (select the down caret on the pill) for the Grouping or Coloring dimension you want to sort.
  2. Search for and select the column you want to sort by in the Data Panel.
  3. Drag and drop the column in the Sort-by field in the Properties Menu of the grouping or coloring dimension.

    • Select the UP arrow to sort in ascending order.
    • Select the DOWN arrow to sort in descending order.
  4. Select Done to save your changes.

URL drill-down

The URL Drill-Down feature can be used in Table Insights to link its rows to external URLs.

  • The URL drill-down field can reference fields in the string. Referencing a {field} concatenates that field into the string. For examples of supported strings, see String Functions.
  • This feature is only available for measures when Aggregated is disabled in the dashboard settings menu.

To Disable the Aggregated Feature:

  1. Select Settings (gear icon) in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight in the Analyze mode.
  2. Toggle Aggregated OFF.

To Add a URL drill-down to an Insight:

  1. Open the Insight in Analyze mode.
  2. Open the Property Menu of the Measure.
  3. Enter the address you would like to drill down to in the URL field.
  4. Select Done to save your changes.

Show Empty Groups

Show Empty Groups is used to display aggregated dimensions for a table containing null child values.

Suppose a child table containing Sales Transactions has a foreign key referencing a parent table containing Countries. Using Show Empty Groups, you can build an Insight showing countries (parent) with no sales (child values).

To Enable Show Empty Groups:

  1. Select More Options (kebab icon) of the Insight tile to open the Analyzer.
  2. Select the down caret of the (parent) dimension to open its Propeties Menu.
  3. Enable Show Empty Groups.
  4. Select Done in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to exit the analyzer mode. Notice that dimensions with null (child) values are now displayed in the table.

Dynamic Group-By

This feature only applies to non-aggregated Table Insights containing more than one grouping dimension.

It enables users to select a grouping dimension from a list corresponding to the table Insight without going to the Analyzer.

To use this feature:

  1. Select More Options (kebab icon) in the upper right-hand corner of an Insight.
  2. Add more than one Grouping dimension in the Grouping dimension field from the Data Panel.
  3. Select Settings (gear icon) in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
  4. Enable Merge Columns and Dynamic Group-By.
  5. Enable Only Show Selected.

    • This option appears only after activating Dynamic Group-By. If this option is not enabled, empty columns for the rest of the dimensions will be displayed with no data.
  6. Select Done to save changes.

From here you can Select the down arrow button in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight. A drop-down menu opens.

Hierarchy Depth

This feature helps view an organizational structure in a tree view, while adding optional attributes that can be specified in the Analyzer. The tree view can be collapsed and expanded.

NOTE: Schema tables used in Insights with hierarchy must be self-joined, in order for the data to be properly calculated.

To apply hierarchy to a table:

  1. Navigate to a Dashboard with a table Insight.
  2. Add a measure, (e.g. ZIP Code), and a unique dimension, (e.g. email).
  3. Select Settings (gear icon) in the action bar.
  4. Enable the Merge Columns option.
  5. Open the Property Menu of the grouping dimension.
  6. Enter the hierarchy levels in the Hierarchy Depth field.
  7. Drag measures and dimensions to the attributes (Attr)field to add to the table. Notice the grouping dimension is added by default in the attributes field.
  8. Enable Exclude Parent to hide the parent in the hierarchy tree view.
  9. Select Done to save changes.
  10. Select the arrow next to the table column header, to expand or collapse all parent values in the column.

Configure Insight Settings

Each insight visualization has specific settings for configuration. In addition to the Insight Settings, the insight visualization also affects the available properties for columns and formulas added to related trays (Pill’s Property Menu).

To configure the various settings:

For a given Insight, select Settings (Gear icon) in the action bar. The Settings menu will have a Settings tab and a Layout tab (depending on the visualization).

See Insight Settings for additional information on configuring these settings.

Download Insights

  1. Open the Dashboard where the Insight you want to download is located.
  2. Select More Options on the insight tile.
  3. Select Download.
  4. Select a format for the downloaded Insights.

    • Charts can be downloaded as PNG, JPEG, PDF, or SVG.
    • Tables can be downloaded either as CSV or XLSX.

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