Customizing the look and feel of the application

In this section, we will focus on the look and feel of the application. There are different reasons why we might need to change the default look and feel of the application. For example, an organization might need to use colors that match its branding. In this section, we will learn how to do the following:

• Apply themes
• Format individual visuals

Let's get started!

Applying themes

Themes in Quicksight are a collection of look-and-feel settings that can be applied to multiple analyses and dashboards. To access the Themes menu, we will need to have an analysis open:

1. First, log in as an author user and open an analysis. Here, we will use the New York Taxi analysis that we have developed in this chapter.
2. Notice that on the left-hand side menu, the Themes option is present. Click on the Themes menu, as follows:
   

   Figure 4.19 – Themes

3. Notice that there are prebuilt themes that we can start with. For this example, we will select the Midnight theme and observe the look and feel using the dashboard we created earlier.
4. Select the Midnight theme.
5. Now, we need to refresh our dashboard. Click on the Share option at the top right-hand side of the screen, and then click Publish dashboard.
6. This time, we will need to replace an existing dashboard, rather than create a new one. See the following example:
   

   Figure 4.20 – Updating an existing dashboard

7. Observe the new look and feel of our dashboard, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 4.21 – Dashboard with the Midnight theme applied

Note

You can create a theme using your colors and a selection of different fonts. Consult the AWS documentation to understand how each color group setting is used by Quicksight.

While themes can be applied to all visuals of an analysis, you might want to change the colors of an individual visual. In the next section, we will learn how to change the look and feel of individual visuals.

Formatting visuals

You might want to change the color of a specific visual or change the color of a specific data point within a visual. In other cases, you might want to apply formatting settings based on specific conditions. In this section, you will learn how to do the following:

• Edit the colors of a specific visual.
• Apply conditional formatting.

Let's get started!

Editing the color of a specific visual

To edit the colors of a specific visual, follow these steps:

1. First, open an analysis and click on a colored area of your visual to open the color options, as shown in the following screenshot:
   

   Figure 4.22 – Chart color settings

2. Notice that our bar chart has only one color. Let's assume that we want to change the chart color and that we also want the top value (Manhattan) to be highlighted with another color.
3. To change the color of the chart, you need to pick the color you want from the Chart Color options. You can select a set of predefined colors, or you can pick a custom color.
4. Finally, to change only the top value – Manhattan, in our example – you need to pick a color from Color Manhattan. You can choose from a set of predefined colors or pick a custom color.
5. The following screenshot shows the charts after making the color changes described in the previous steps:

Figure 4.23 – Bar chart after updating its color

Now that we have learned how to change the color of a visual, let's learn how to apply conditional formatting.

Applying conditional formatting

Some visual types support conditional formatting. Conditional formatting can be used when you need to control the look and feel of your visual based on a condition. In this section, we will select one of the visuals we developed earlier and apply conditional formatting.

The gauge chart visual supports visual formatting. For this example, let's assume that we want the color of the text to be red when the percentage target is below 95%:

1. First, we will need to access the Conditional formatting settings, as shown in the following screenshot:
   

   Figure 4.24 – Conditional formatting menu

2. In this example, we are interested in changing the text color, so we need to click the Add text color option.
3. Then, we must configure the condition, as follows:

   a) Format field based on: Percent (%)

   b) Condition: Less than

   c) Value (%): 95

   d) Color: Red:

   

   Figure 4.25 – Adding a condition for conditional formatting

   Note

   Not all visual types have the option for conditional formatting. The conditional formatting parameters will depend on the visual's type.

4. Next, click Apply. Once the setting has been applied, the visual will be reloaded and displayed, as shown in the following screenshot. Notice that the color changed to red since the value is less than the 95% threshold:

Figure 4.26 – Visual after conditional formatting has been applied

Feel free to try out different visual types and different conditions and settings.