22-25 April 2026 
Maximizing the impact of Power BI applications through improved user experience
Proposed session for SQLBits 2026TL; DR
While the best websites are carefully designed around user experience, Power BI applications are often built with a strong technical focus and little formal UX guidance. Yet Power BI users face the same challenges as web users: finding information quickly, understanding context, and taking action.
This session introduces key UX principles from the web and shows how to apply them effectively in Power BI. Using practical examples, you’ll learn how to avoid common design pitfalls, improve adoption, and significantly enhance user satisfaction—often with minimal additional effort.
Finally, the session explains why strong UX design is also essential for high-quality Copilot interactions and AI-driven insights.
Session Details
The best websites invest heavily in user experience (UX): ensuring users can quickly find the information they need, navigate intuitively, and engage with content that feels clear and purposeful. UX shapes how digital products are perceived through ergonomics, navigation, structure, and content relevance.
Like modern websites, Power BI applications deliver information to users. However, unlike websites—typically designed by multidisciplinary teams including UX and communication professionals—Power BI solutions are often built by small teams of highly technical developers, with limited focus on user experience design.
This session bridges that gap by bringing proven UX principles from the web world into the Power BI ecosystem. Through concrete examples and real-world scenarios, you will learn:
The core principles of effective user experience design
Common UX pitfalls in Power BI reports and apps
Practical techniques to improve usability, clarity, and adoption
How small design changes can significantly increase user satisfaction and engagement
You will also discover why great human user experience is a prerequisite for effective Copilot interactions, and how well-designed Power BI applications become the foundation for meaningful AI-assisted analytics.
Like modern websites, Power BI applications deliver information to users. However, unlike websites—typically designed by multidisciplinary teams including UX and communication professionals—Power BI solutions are often built by small teams of highly technical developers, with limited focus on user experience design.
This session bridges that gap by bringing proven UX principles from the web world into the Power BI ecosystem. Through concrete examples and real-world scenarios, you will learn:
The core principles of effective user experience design
Common UX pitfalls in Power BI reports and apps
Practical techniques to improve usability, clarity, and adoption
How small design changes can significantly increase user satisfaction and engagement
You will also discover why great human user experience is a prerequisite for effective Copilot interactions, and how well-designed Power BI applications become the foundation for meaningful AI-assisted analytics.
3 things you'll get out of this session
Identify how UX best practices enhance Power BI adoption and Copilot effectiveness
Learn practical techniques to improve Power BI user experience and avoid common design pitfalls
Understand how UX-driven Power BI design enables meaningful Copilot and AI-assisted analytics
Speakers
Joel Gagnon's other proposed sessions for 2026
How Modern Organizations Automate Data-Driven Decision Making with Microsoft BI - 2026