SALES REPORT 2021–2025
The challenge was to design a formal report that illustrated a performance analysis for my photography business and outline key strategies for the coming year. The visual design needed to be clean and organized and match brand guidelines while the technical design needed to be supported by direct data, be accurate and illustrate key findings and recommendations. More about the business structure, including products, channels and brand management is found in New England Prints Brand & Packaging.
THE DESIGN PROCESS - DATA PREPARATION
Stocksmith is an online system that holds all the order and manufacturing data for the entire lifetime of my business. The supporting data files for the analysis were downloaded and organized into a local file structure.
Aligning the different csv files required a study of the data, identification of keys and matching across data sets. Microsoft Excel was used as an exploratory tool to identify the keys for each table and validate the definitions of column values. Audit summary values were confirmed from the raw data.
Data was loaded to Power BI and relationships were defined between tables covering data for sales and inventory. Transformational columns were added to the tables to create links that align data sets. Exploratory charts were created and used to validate the key KPI summary values against known audit values.
From the exploratory charts, the data was filtered to illustrate the last 5 years only and reviewed for key findings in channel performance, product mix and seasonality. Several important points were identified and chart designs were selected that clearly illustrate the appropriate data relationships (bar vs line, etc.).
Data markers and labels were added to add context and clarity.
DESIGN PROCESS - REPORT CREATIVE
The color palette aligning to the established New England Prints brand identity was used as the color scheme for the report for both charts and report design.
The brand logo and website use Cinzel Decorative for Headers and Lato for text. For chart creation in PowerBI, Verdana was selected from the PowerBI default fontpack as an appropriate substitute to Lato as it is also a sans serif with high x-height and double-story a.
Pages were laid out in Adobe InDesign against a 7 x 5 grid to organize the charts into specific storylines and additional text was added to provide additional context between the analysis and key findings. Large number callouts were used to attract attention to salient points.
Pages were designed with similar layouts with bold headers and subtitles to provide clean hierarchy across charts and graphs.
Annotations were added to chart details to add important information for readers that was necessary for interpretation (the two examples below were to provide known explanations for data differences).
Takeaways were added to close the report including 2026 strategies supported by the data analysis.
BUSINESS METRIC DASHBOARD
The challenge was to design a dashboard that tracked the key KPIs for my photography business. The visual design needed to be interactive and provide easy information across time, channel and product groups. The technical design needed to be supported by direct data, be accurate and easy to update from time to time and support exploratory analysis of business operations.
The existing New England Prints logo was added to Power BI for use in the header and the header background was set as black matching the design of the existing business website (shown below).
A set of key charts were designed highlighting total sales and profit over time, channel proportion, geographic penetration and a highlight of top products. Page filters were added for interactivity, including drill to specific years, channels or product groups.
A set of KPI cards were added to highlight at-a-glance view of key business metrics. These KPI cards were given the most emphasis by applying larger and bolded font to both the header and the value itself.
The layout was organized to emphasize a balanced view, it is symmetrical with strict alignment and proportions. The charts layout allows a sliver of the darker background color between each, providing enough contrast to establish rhythm on the page.
An alternate mobile-ready design provides the same information in a format that aligns with the vertical layout.
FINAL DASHBOARD DESIGN
