Power BI Mobile: Designing Reports for Phones

Many readers check reports on their phones: a sales manager between meetings, an executive on the way to one. Any Power BI report page opens in the mobile apps, but Microsoft is candid that pages designed for a computer can be difficult to read and use on a phone (Microsoft Learn: mobile-optimised reports). A mobile layout fixes that for each page that matters, usually in less time than the desktop page took to build.

How mobile-optimised views work

A mobile layout is an extra view of a single report page. When one exists, the Power BI mobile app shows it automatically while the phone is held upright; turning the phone sideways shows the normal page. Reports with optimised pages carry a special icon in the app. Two details are easy to miss:

• Mobile layouts appear only in the Power BI apps for iOS and Android. In a phone's web browser, the standard page always shows.
• Layouts are per page. A report with five pages needs five layouts to be fully optimised; pages without one show the desktop view.

Opening the mobile layout editor

In Power BI Desktop, select Mobile layout on the View ribbon, or use the layout switcher at the bottom of the page. In the Power BI service, edit the report and choose Mobile layout (Microsoft Learn: mobile layout view). The editor shows:

• A phone-shaped canvas with a fine grid for placing visuals. It is interactive, so you can try buttons, slicers and visuals as you design.
• The Page visuals pane, listing every visual on the original page. You build the layout by dragging visuals from here onto the canvas.
• A formatting pane for adjusting visuals specifically for the phone.

The visuals are the same visuals as on the desktop page, with the same data and filters; you choose which to include and how they are arranged and sized.

Auto-create: a starting point

The auto-create mobile layout option generates a complete layout from the desktop page, trying to preserve its structure, and bookmarks that change visibility work in the result. It also replaces any layout already on the canvas, so use it at the start, not after hand-tuning. Microsoft notes that the structure and complexity of the desktop page affect how good the generated layout is; treat it as a first draft.

Designing for a small screen

The design choices matter more than the tool:

1. Choose the few visuals that answer the phone reader's question. Someone on the move usually wants the headline numbers and one trend, not every breakdown. Microsoft's general design advice makes the same point: on tablets and phones, fewer tiles are more readable (Microsoft Learn: design tips).
2. Order them top to bottom by importance. Cards first, then the main trend, then one breakdown. Readers scroll vertically.
3. Use cards generously. A pair of cards side by side reads well on a phone; KPIs and cards in Power BI covers designing them.
4. Prefer simple charts. Short bar charts and line charts survive the small screen; wide tables, dense matrices and scatter plots rarely do.
5. Keep slicers to one or two, sized for fingers, or rely on the filters set on the page.
6. Check text size, titles and data labels, adjusting them in the mobile layout's formatting pane.

Interactivity on phones

Tapping works like clicking: selecting a bar filters or highlights other visuals, and buttons follow their actions. Because the canvas is interactive, test every button and slicer in the editor. Bookmarks that show and hide visuals can offer a compact "chart or table" toggle on the phone, as described in bookmarks and buttons. Keep interactions simple; long chains of taps are tedious on a small screen.

Publishing and testing

When a report is created in Power BI Desktop, publishing it publishes the mobile layouts too; in the service, saving the report saves them. Then test on a real phone in the Power BI app: check that the optimised view appears in portrait, that text is readable without zooming, that scrolling is short, and that numbers match the desktop page.

Which pages deserve a mobile layout?

Not every page. Start with the pages readers actually open on their phones, usually a summary or KPI page. Detailed analysis pages, with wide tables and many filters, are often better left for larger screens; the phone reader can still turn the phone sideways to see them. Ask a few phone readers which pages they open most, and optimise those first.

A checklist before publishing

1. The most important number is visible without scrolling.
2. No more than five or six visuals on the phone layout.
3. Every title and label is readable at phone size.
4. Slicers and buttons are large enough to tap.
5. The layout was tested in the Power BI mobile app, in portrait and landscape.

Power BI dashboard design covers the desktop page that the mobile layout is built from.

Dashboard design, interactive dashboards and UI and UX best practices for BI reports are part of the Power BI course.

Sources

• Mobile-optimized Power BI reports overview (Microsoft Learn) — Microsoft Learn
• Mobile layout view in Power BI (Microsoft Learn) — Microsoft Learn
• Tips for designing a great Power BI dashboard (Microsoft Learn) — Microsoft Learn