Mobile, Accessibility & Personalisation
Design Power BI reports for mobile devices, configure accessibility features (alt text, tab order), enable personalisation, and set up automatic page refresh for near-real-time data.
Reports that work for everyone
A good report works on any screen, for any person. Your CEO checks dashboards on their phone in a taxi. A team member with a visual impairment uses a screen reader. A regional manager wants to rearrange visuals to focus on their metrics.
Power BI supports all of these: mobile layout optimises reports for phones, accessibility features make reports usable with assistive technology, personalisation lets users customise their view, and automatic page refresh keeps data flowing in near-real-time.
Mobile layout
Power BI Desktop includes a Mobile layout editor that creates phone-optimised versions of report pages.
How to create:
- View → Mobile layout
- Drag visuals from the desktop layout onto the phone canvas
- Resize and rearrange for vertical scrolling
- Only visuals you add appear on mobile — the rest are hidden
Riley at Coastal Fresh (🛒) creates a mobile layout for her store managers:
- Revenue card at the top (immediately visible)
- Bar chart of top products
- Table with today’s sales detail
- Slicers at the bottom
Store managers check this on their phones during the morning briefing — no scrolling needed for the headline numbers.
Best practice: mobile-first design
- Top of screen = most important — cards and KPIs first
- Vertical scrolling only — no side-scrolling
- Fewer visuals — 4-6 max on mobile
- Larger touch targets — slicers and buttons need to be finger-sized
- Test on actual devices — what looks fine in the editor may be too small on a real phone
Accessibility
Power BI reports should be usable by people with disabilities, including those using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or high-contrast modes.
Key accessibility features
| Feature | What to Configure |
|---|---|
| Alt text | Add descriptive text to every visual (Format → General → Alt text). Screen readers read this aloud. |
| Tab order | Set the order in which Tab key moves through visuals (View → Selection pane → Tab order view). Ensure logical reading order. |
| High contrast | Ensure visuals are readable in high-contrast mode (don’t rely solely on colour). |
| Titles and labels | Every visual should have a clear title. Axis labels should be descriptive. |
| Colour choices | Use colour-blind-friendly palettes. Don’t use colour as the only way to convey meaning. |
Dr. Ethan at Bayview Medical (🏥) ensures his compliance dashboard meets accessibility standards:
- Alt text on every chart: “Bar chart showing monthly patient admissions by department, January through December 2026”
- Tab order follows the reading flow: title → KPI cards → charts → table
- Colour coding is supplemented with icons (green checkmark = compliant, not just green colour)
Exam tip: alt text for accessibility
Every visual should have alt text. It should describe what the visual shows, not just the visual type.
Bad: “Bar chart” Good: “Bar chart showing revenue by region. North leads with $420K.”
The exam tests whether you know to add alt text (Format pane → General) AND configure tab order (Selection pane → Tab order view). These are in different locations.
Personalisation
Personalisation lets report consumers change visuals without editing the report.
When enabled, users can:
- Change the visual type (swap a bar chart for a table)
- Add or remove fields from a visual
- Change aggregation (switch from SUM to AVERAGE)
- Modify sort order
How to enable: File → Options → Current file → Report settings → toggle “Allow end users to personalize visuals in this report”
Nadia at Prism Agency (📊) enables personalisation so each client’s marketing manager can rearrange campaign visuals to focus on their preferred metrics — without Nadia creating custom reports for each.
Personalised views are saved per user — they don’t affect other users or the original report.
Automatic page refresh
Automatic page refresh reloads data at regular intervals — useful for near-real-time dashboards.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Fixed interval | Refresh every N minutes/seconds. Minimum interval varies: shared capacity (30 min), dedicated/PPU capacity (as low as 1 second, admin-controlled) |
| Change detection | Refresh only when data actually changes (requires DirectQuery + admin enablement) |
Requirements:
- Must be DirectQuery or composite model (Import doesn’t support auto-refresh — use scheduled dataset refresh instead)
- Minimum interval depends on workspace capacity type and admin settings
- Admin must enable the feature in tenant settings
Kenji at Apex Manufacturing (🏭) sets his factory floor dashboard to refresh every 5 minutes (they have Premium capacity). The dashboard always shows near-current production data without anyone manually hitting refresh.
Knowledge check
Nadia wants each client to be able to change chart types and swap fields on their own report view — without affecting other users. What feature should she enable?
Kenji's factory dashboard uses DirectQuery. He wants data to refresh every 5 minutes without user interaction. What does he need?
🎬 Video coming soon
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