Features

Google Data Studio – Basic and advanced uses of line shape

Since the 6th of June and in addition to rectangle and circle shapes, we can now draw lines in Google Data Studio.

Lines can be

  • linear, elbow or curved elbow
  • connected to other elements
  • decorated with circles, diamonds or pointers at start and/or end, with custom sizes and colors

Google Data Studio - Advanced uses of shapes (lines, circles and rectangles)

Basic uses

Thanks to this new element type, we can use it to:

  • Create break lines between title and related widgets to facilitate the reading of page blocks
  • Connect elements or draw static flow graphs
  • Point and comment contents on fixed reports

Google Data Studio - Basic uses of line shape


Advanced uses

As every feature, we can also customize it for more tricky and advanced use cases

  • Conversion funnel
  • Zooming effect to a specific element
  • Icon creation

Conversion funnel

A big pointer can be used as a triangle for funnel representation purposes. With rectangle masks using the background color, we get trapezium.

In the example below, I’ve used 500 as pointer custom size.


Google Data Studio - Funnel with line shape

Icon creation

Now, let’s create a click icon, combining 2 concentric circles and a pointer.
We use it to illustrate clicks and click through rate


Google Data Studio - Click icon with line shape

Zooming effect

Let’s say that your need details about a metric (drill down, related trend…) but you wish to keep the macro view of it. Let’s take it as an opportunity also to improve story telling reporting, using the analogy of the magnifying glass.

  • We create a magnifying glass icon like we’ve made previously for click icon
  • We use a line with circle at start and pointer at end, and play with related sizes to get a zoom effect, then put detailed data.


Google Data Studio - Line shape for zoom effect

Dessine-moi un mouton