Visualising Route Progressions with Power BI Line Animation
Table of Contents
Introduction
In data storytelling, clarity and context are key to telling time-based stories. It’s not enough to know where movement happened; you need to know when and in what order. Animated route maps can help one visualise this movement over time, bringing clarity to otherwise complex spatial data.
In this tutorial, you will learn a step-by-step process to prepare your data, configure the azure map, and spice it up with a little DAX to control time-based animation.
Use Case: Visualising Movement Over Time
In any operation that involves mobility, whether it’s delivery drivers, public transportation, emergency response, or field technicians, tracking how movement unfolds over time is crucial. A simple map may show you where someone was, but an animated path tells you when they were there, and in what order.
Power BI now allows you to animate such paths by combining:
- Azure Map visual with the Path Layer
- A timestamp or time sequence
- A custom Play Axis slicer
Step 1: Prepare your Data
For the Azure Map visual to work, you need to structure your data as:
- Latitude & Longitude: The core of any map visual.
- Path ID: This identifier groups individual data points into distinct trips or drivers. Each unique Path ID represents a separate trip or driver.
- Point Order: Typically, a timestamp or a numeric sequence showing the order of movement (Time).
If this structure is followed, Power BI can plot the path step by step, like drawing a line from one delivery point to the next in sequence.
Step 2: Add the Azure Map Visual
- Open Power BI Desktop.
- From the Visuals pane, select Azure Map.
- Drag fields into the following buckets:
Bucket
Field
Latitude
Latitude
Longitude
Longitude
Legends
Delivery Guy
Path ID
Driver or Route ID (ID for this tutorial)
- Drag fields into the following buckets:
This gives you the following visual:
Step 3: Add Point Order
Now we need the data to follow a sequence, or a specific path, for that we need to add Point Order We will add the time field into point order; it will give us the following visual:
The visual shows us the path the delivery guys took with the timestamps. Now, customise your visual as per your liking, play with the settings, and make your visual stand out.
Step 4: Add Time Dimension Table
You can add a time dimension table in various ways. What we prefer is using DAX for your small dataset; you can make it in Power Query.
- In Power BI Desktop, click Modelling in the top ribbon and click New Table
- Write the following DAX formula we generated from OpenAI:
TimeDim =
VAR AllTimes =
DISTINCT ( SELECTCOLUMNS ( DeliveryData, “Time”, DeliveryData[Time] ) )
RETURN
ADDCOLUMNS (
AllTimes,
“Hour”, HOUR ( [Time] ),
“Minute”, MINUTE ( [Time] ),
“Time (HH:MM)”, FORMAT ( [Time], “HH:mm” ),
“Quarter Hour”,
“Q”
& FORMAT (
ROUNDDOWN ( ( HOUR ( [Time] ) * 60 + MINUTE ( [Time] ) ) / 15, 0 ) + 1,
“00”
)
)
- Press Enter, and Power BI will create a new table called TimeDim and add it to your data model.
Step 5: Add Play Axis
Play Axis is a custom visual you can get from the Power BI visuals marketplace.
- Go to the Visualisation pane> Get more Visuals and search for Play Axis. Add this visual to your visualisation pane.
- Drop Time (HH:MM) into the Play Axis visual.
- Now, we need to see the time also, so, we added a simple card visual. From the TimeDim add “time (HH;MM)” in its field.
Step 6: Add Measures
To visualise our Map visual smoothly, we need to add a measure to our Time Dimension dataset.
- In Power BI Desktop, click Modelling in the top ribbon and click New Measure.
- Rename your measure to TimeFilter and write the following DAX code
TimeFilter =
IF(
(SELECTEDVALUE(Sheet1[Time]) <= SELECTEDVALUE(TimeDim[Time (HH:MM)]))
|| (NOT ISFILTERED(TimeDim[Time (HH:MM)])),
1,
0
)
Step 7: Merge everything:
Group your Play Axis visual and KPI card, showing time, and place it on your map like so:
Step 8: Click Play!
- Now, click Play on the Play Axis. The map will animate the delivery routes point by point, showing how the drivers moved throughout the day.
Practical Applications
Delivery Route Analysis
- Helps track how delivery drivers move throughout their day
- Help identify any delays, route overlaps or inefficiencies that may occur
- Tell a time-based story using animations.
Fleet & Vehicle Movement
- Fleet performance and idle time can be monitored
- Unauthorised stops and delayed movements can be detected
- Present clear, time-based reports to operations teams.
Emergency Services Response
- Help show emergency vehicles’ movement to accidents.
- Analyse the swiftness of units reaching high-priority areas.
- Use time filters to evaluate response patterns.
Urban Mobility / Smart City Dashboards
- Visualise the traffic or pedestrian flows across different hours of mobility.
- Help monitor public transport movement to improve routes.
- Help in recommending infrastructure improvements based on movement patterns.
Retail Customer Journey Mapping
- Animate footfall or customer movement in malls, stores, etc.
- See which sections receive the most traffic at what times.
- Inform store layout or staffing decisions.
Asset and Field Staff Tracking
- Follow technicians or maintenance workers in the field to help navigate them.
- Help understand coverage gaps and plan efficient task assignments.
Drone or Aerial Data Monitoring
- Animate drone flight paths over geographical areas.
- Use in agriculture, surveying, security, or environmental monitoring.
Crisis or Event Timeline Reporting
- Visualise how events unfold geographically over time (e.g., protests, outages, natural disasters).
- Use in reporting, investigation, or audit dashboards.
Conclusion
Adding line animations into Power BI maps as an impactful and dynamic layer to your data. This technique empowers your dashboard to go beyond static visuals.
It enables you to present not just what happened, but how it happened over time, making your insights more actionable and your reports more engaging. With thoughtful data modelling and visual design, Power BI can become a real-time operational lens, not just a reporting tool.
By mastering these animations, you are not only building dashboards but are building interactive narratives that drive better decisions. Happy Storytelling!
FAQs
Line animation in Power BI maps refers to a technique where geographic movement (e.g., delivery routes or travel paths) is animated over time using a Time Dimension and Play Axis.
You need latitude and longitude data, a unique identifier for each path, a time or sequence field, and a Time Dimension table. Use Azure Maps and a Play Axis slicer to control animation over time.
Animated maps help data analysts visualise how events or movements evolve. This enhances decision-making by uncovering patterns and inefficiencies that static visuals often miss, making the reports more interactive and impactful.
Yes, you can create a Time Dimension table using DAX by extracting distinct time values from your dataset. This table is essential for enabling time-based filtering and animation in your visuals.
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