Watch this Ask the Expert session to learn how you can create beautiful interactive reports that help convey your message.
Watch the webinar
You will learn:
- The steps for creating effective reports.
- How to choose the best chart type.
- Best practices for creating reports quickly and easily.
The questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the webinar are listed below and the slides from the webinar are attached.
Q&A
If you have a lot of information, is it better to have a longer page (so user would have to scroll down to see the whole report) or have multiple tabs (so the user doesn't scroll but clicks across the tabs instead). I'm thinking of website reports/dashboards rather than something that is more of a presentation.
It really depends on your audience. Remember, whenever we think about adding things to different pages, we want each page to stand on their own. If there's information that you need your viewers to know to understand other parts of the page, I would recommend using a scrolling container and making a longer page that has those details rather than them having to remember it and jumping to a different page. Now you can always provide additional details with links as well. For example, let's say that I'm showing a Geo map that has all of our customers, and I want to focus on a specific subset of customers and see details about them. I can link to another page that has details about that set of customers that I've selected instead of displaying it all on a single page. Both solutions are valid. It just depends on what exactly you're trying to convey. You'll want to think about, do the viewers need to remember something to understand what's presented in a different page? If so, consider adding those details to that page so they don't miss the message. In addition, you'll want to think about if there is any way that you can limit the information displayed on the page by providing links to a page with additional details.
On the "Consider the Layout" page referring to the Table of Contents, can you show where you get the text box designs for the layout of the table of contents? For example, you have circles with expanded borders for the text. Is that in SAS Viya?
Both of the Table of Contents pages were created using a mix of images and text objects. You can use background colors to distinguish between the different text objects. In addition, you can create a layout of images and text in PowerPoint (as is done in one of the examples in the presentation), take a screenshot of the layout, and add it as an image in Visual Analytics. You can also add text with links to the various pages in the report so viewers can easily jump to the pages that are of interest to them. Recently, I've been using a stacking container with tabs that contain additional details about the report: an overview, details about data items, data cautions, and an FAQ. It's important to note that anything you can use to build a report (text, images, containers, objects) can be used to create a Table of Contents page.
As a SAS 9.4 user, do I have access to SAS Visual Analytics? If not, what is the report generator for 9.4?
SAS Visual Analytics is available in SAS 9.4. The functionality is pretty similar, although SAS Visual Analytics on SAS Viya will have additional features, and some tasks will be accomplished in a different manner. Everything discussed in the presentation (minus the Viewer Customization level, the Data-driven content object, the Report Review pane, and the SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript) will be available in SAS Visual Analytics on 9.4 and all the best practices are valid.
How would I make templates without SAS Visual Analytics?
While I'm not sure how to make templates without Visual Analytics, in Visual Analytics you can make templates of pages and objects, which was briefly mentioned in the presentation. For example, once you create a page and lay out the objects as you desire, you can create a page template from that and use it in different reports. I do this a lot with my Overview or Table of Contents pages. The page template can include the objects, the options modified for those objects, and the layout of the objects. In addition, you can include data with the page templates as well. You can also create object templates that save the modified options for each object so you don't have to make the same changes repeatedly. For more information about creating templates in Visual Analytics, see the Using Templates to Create Reports Quickly in SAS Visual Analytics or check out SAS Visual Analytics: Use Object Templates for consistency and faster report development.
Outside of SAS Visual Analytics, all of these report design best practices are still valid. You will still want to draft a plan, choose the best chart (the available chart types will depend on which tool you use), focus on what's important, consider the layout, and test, test, and test again.
I'm a user of SAS Enterprise Guide. What tools would you recommend for building a report in SAS Enterprise Guide?
While this presentation focused mostly on SAS Visual Analytics, it's important to remember that the report design best practices are applicable to any tool. You will want to draft a plan, choose the best chart (the available chart types will depend on which tool you use), focus on what's important, consider the layout, and test, test, and test again.
How do I access Visual Analytics with SAS 9.4? Where do I go to begin?
Before you access SAS Visual Analytics at your site, you will need to contact your SAS admin. They can let you know if you have Visual Analytics licensed, will be able to direct you to the correct URL to access Visual Analytics, and will be able to assign you credentials for signing in.
Is there a link to where the layout recommendations are located?
You can find report design best practices by visiting the SAS Beautiful Reports website. You can find additional resources in the attached slide deck.
Recommended Resources
Please see additional resources in the attached slide deck.
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