How to Create Stunning, Interactive Card Visuals with Images in Power BI
Table of Contents
Introduction
Power BI is a powerful tool for creating dashboards that communicate insights in a clear and streamlined manner. However, let us face it; although the default visuals, such as bar charts, pie charts, and even KPIs, are sufficient, they often lack a certain appeal. This is where using image card backgrounds can make a difference.
They provide an added touch of sophistication and narrative that regular visuals cannot deliver. In this article, I’ll walk you through how I turned a standard car dataset into an eye-catching Power BI dashboard with image-enhanced card visuals. By the time you complete reading this article, you will learn how to:
- Create card visuals that command attention.
- Use text and images together for effective storytelling.
- Apply Power BI slicers and filters for interactivity.
- Impress stakeholders with a clean, professional design.
Setting the Stage: From Data to Design
My data contained helpful information about a fleet of vehicles, such as engine type, fuel, drive system, and colour. The data alone was organized and useful, but not visually appealing. The challenge was straightforward:
How do I make this car information both useful and visually engaging?
And then it hit me: custom card visuals, augmented with photos, colours, and formatting.
Why Card Visuals?
Before jumping into the how, let’s consider the why.
Card visuals are usually reserved to highlight top-level KPIs such as total revenue or customer number. But what most users don’t know is that card visuals can be applied to storytelling, particularly when they are combined with images, intelligent text formatting, and interactive filtering can be achieved with them.
Benefits of Card Visuals with Images:
- Better Visual Engagement: Images are processed 60,000 times more quickly than text. An image on a card immediately grabs attention.
- Brand Identity: Whether the item is a car, a product, or a person, displaying it gives your report a branded, catalogue-like appearance.
- Rich Context: Cards let you show several related pieces of information in one location, such as the name, image, and categories.
To put it briefly, card visuals make it easier to convey complicated information in an interesting and straightforward manner.
How I Did It: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Prepare Your Data
Vehicle Information is the main table in my report, and it contains the following fields:
- Vehicle – the model’s name.
- Engine Capacity – e.g., 6.2 L V6.
- Drive – e.g., All Wheel Drive.
- Fuel Type – e.g., Hybrid.
- Colour – e.g., Lunar Pearl.
- Img – a URL or base64 image of the vehicle.
Making sure that every vehicle has a distinct image that can be rendered in Power BI is the first step.
Step 2: Add the Card Visual
- Go to Visualisations pane → Card.
- Drag it to the canvas.
- Assign the Vehicle Card Details measure to the card.
- Insert a Button Slicer visual and drag Vehicle data value into its field.
Tip: Format the card using the Format pane:
- Turn Category Label OFF for a cleaner look.
- Increase Font size.
- Set background or border colour to match your theme.
Step 3: Adding Image to the Card Visual
- From Visualisations, choose the image dropdown in formatting pane.
- Drag and drop the Img field (with vehicle image URLs) to the Image type field.
- Do the following conditional formatting to the image field.
- Resize and position the image visual above or beside the card.
Step 4: Group and Align the Visuals
- Select both the Card and Image.
- Use Format → Group to lock their relative positions.
- Adjust spacing, padding, and shadows to simulate a modern “card” design.
Step 5: Style It
The magic occurs here. I intended for each card to resemble a contemporary product tile found in an app for a car catalogue. What I did was as follows:
- Background: A smooth dark gradient was used.
- Text: Left-aligned, white font for readability.
- Card Shape: For a more contemporary appearance, slightly round the corners.
- Drop Shadows: To add depth and make the card stand out.
Adding Interactivity
To enable users to navigate cars by filters (i.e., fuel type, drive, body type), I have included slicers in the report:
- Fuel Type
- Drive Type
- Transmission
This turned the report from a static display into an interactive experience. When a user selects “Hybrid” and “All Wheel Drive,” only matching vehicles appear in the card.
Real Business Use Cases
My design is useful in addition to being attractive. Here are some examples of practical uses:
- Automotive Sales Reports
- Display the dealership’s inventory along with images and important details.
- Product Catalogues
- Use cards to display featured products with pricing and availability.
- Employee Dashboards
- Include staff pictures with KPIs like performance rating or tenure.
- Real Estate Listings
- Properties shown with image, price, size, and location.
In each of these cases, card visuals with images improve communication, clarity, and user engagement.
Pro Tips and Pitfalls
Advantages:
- Compress images to avoid lag in performance.
- Employ line breaks and bolding to establish visual hierarchy.
- Test layout with various screen sizes
Disadvantages:
- Overload cards with too much text.
- Use inconsistent image sizes or resolutions.
- Forget mobile users, responsive design matters.
The Result? A Dashboard That Impresses
My car dashboard transformed from a boring data table to an interactive, visually stunning report that feels more like a contemporary app than a spreadsheet with a few simple visual adjustments and astute design decisions.
In addition to being impressed, stakeholders were eager to examine the data. This method will help you take your Power BI reports from functional to amazing, whether you’re creating them for executives, clients, or your own team.
Final Thoughts
Don’t underestimate the power of good design in data storytelling. Power BI not only gives you the tools but also tells you how to use them intuitively.
So, the next time you’re creating a dashboard, think beyond charts and tables. Ask yourself:
- Can I make this insight more visual?
- Would an image make this data more relatable?
- How can I turn this metric into a story?
If the answer is yes, then image card visuals might just be the upgrade your dashboard needs.
FAQs
Absolutely. If the slicers filter the same dataset, both the Card and Image visuals will dynamically update based on the selection.
Yes, but you’ll need to:
- Use Power BI Mobile Layout
- Resize and align visuals properly
- Test on multiple screen sizes for responsiveness
Power BI supports:
- URLs (hosted online with http or https)
- Base64-encoded images
Just ensure the field is categorized as an Image URL under column formatting.
Not at all. You can create a stunning, interactive image card using only:
- Default Card visual (for specs).
- Image visual (for pictures).
- A DAX measure to format the text neatly.
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