PBIR Design Analyzer is a focused VS Code extension for reviewing local Power BI PBIP/PBIR report projects before they are shared, governed, or published. It analyzes report pages, visuals, navigation, hidden states, theming, and design consistency so authors can improve report quality with a repeatable workflow.
Documentation: How To Use PBIR Design Analyzer
Quick Start
- Open a local PBIP project or Report folder.
- Run PBIR Design Analyzer: Score Report.
- Review the Overall score, page tabs, and expanded framework cards.
- Open Configure Scoring if you want to tune framework weights or navigation treatment.
- Use Check Governance only when your workspace has shared governance enabled.
What It Analyzes
- PBIP/PBIR report structure, page order, visuals, bookmarks, and navigation controls
- page layout quality, grouping, spacing, alignment, and information density
- chart selection, labeling, decorative ink, and visual consistency
- contrast and readability signals that affect accessibility coverage
- storytelling flow from headline metrics through trends, comparisons, and drill paths
- optional enterprise governance scoring plus opt-in workspace governance checks
Design Principles In The Configuration Panel
- Gestalt Principles. Evaluates grouping, alignment, proximity, similarity, and continuity across report layouts.
- Cognitive Load. Measures visual density, competing signals, and the mental effort required to interpret a page.
- Data-Ink Ratio. Rewards visuals that maximize data signal and minimize decorative or redundant ink.
- Graphical Perception. Evaluates whether chart encodings match how accurately people compare quantitative values.
- Accessibility (WCAG). Checks contrast, readability, and reporting choices that improve accessibility coverage.
- Visual Best Practices. Applies dashboard design guidance around chart choice, labeling, and consistency.
- Enterprise Governance. An optional scoring framework for team or enterprise design standards. Workspace publish governance is configured separately and is disabled by default until explicitly enabled.
- Stephen Few Principles. Applies Stephen Few dashboard heuristics such as KPI prominence and one-screen density.
- Tufte Minimalism. Emphasizes clarity, precision, and minimal chart junk in report presentation.
- Dashboard Density. Evaluates balance between information richness and crowding on each report page.
- Narrative Design. Evaluates how well page sequencing and layout guide a user through the report story.
- Folder icon - Open PBIP Project. Open a local PBIP project or Report folder and populate the explorer tree.
- Refresh icon - Refresh Reports. Re-scan report metadata after file edits or Power BI Desktop saves.
- Chart icon - Score Report. Run the design analysis for the selected report or page and open the PBIR Optimization Report.
- Gear icon - Configure Scoring. Enable or disable principles, rebalance weights, tune navigation scoring, and review governance defaults.
- Shield icon - Check Governance. Evaluate the current report against workspace governance only when a shared governance policy is enabled.
Typical Workflow
- Open a PBIP project or Report folder.
- Refresh after external edits or after saving in Power BI Desktop.
- Score the full report to review overall and page-level results.
- Adjust principle weights and governance settings if your team uses a custom review standard.
- Re-score and run governance checks before publish or handoff.
Detailed Usage Guide
For full setup, workflow, scoring interpretation, and design principle details, see How To Use PBIR Design Analyzer.
Requirements
- VS Code 1.93+
- .NET 8 available on the machine for the packaged analyzer backend
- a local Power BI project using PBIP/PBIR files
Scope
This package is intentionally narrow. It is built for local PBIR design analysis and governance workflows, not general Fabric authoring, TMDL editing, or live service management.
Feedback And Issues
Submit bugs, feature requests, support questions, and documentation fixes in the GitHub repo:
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