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Session 4 Tableau

This document discusses best practices for creating effective data visualizations and dashboards. It covers choosing the right chart type based on the type of data analysis needed, such as comparison, relationship, composition, or distribution. Common chart types like line, bar, heat map, and scatterplot are described along with examples of appropriate uses. Guidelines are provided for dashboard layout, including using an inverted pyramid structure and filtering at the top. The document also discusses pre-attentive attributes like length, width, color, and position that the eye can quickly perceive without focused attention. Tips are given for improving titles and tooltips to make visualizations more impactful and understandable.

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Rahul Sorout
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41 views46 pages

Session 4 Tableau

This document discusses best practices for creating effective data visualizations and dashboards. It covers choosing the right chart type based on the type of data analysis needed, such as comparison, relationship, composition, or distribution. Common chart types like line, bar, heat map, and scatterplot are described along with examples of appropriate uses. Guidelines are provided for dashboard layout, including using an inverted pyramid structure and filtering at the top. The document also discusses pre-attentive attributes like length, width, color, and position that the eye can quickly perceive without focused attention. Tips are given for improving titles and tooltips to make visualizations more impactful and understandable.

Uploaded by

Rahul Sorout
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Visualization

Agenda

Introduction
Chart Type & Dashboard Flow
Pre-Attentive Processing
Title & Tooltip
Next steps & additional resources
Chart Type
A common mistake that I hear many people make is that they choose
the chart type that they want. For example, declaring that they want a
bar chart or a line graph vs spending time exploring their data,
understanding the story they want to tell, and choosing a chart type that
supports their analysis.

Take a look at the charts on your dashboard.. What are you trying to do?

Comparison – are you comparing one or more variable?


Relationship – are you showing a connection or correlation between
two or more variables?
Composition – are you showing a change over time and/or parts to a
whole?
Distribution – are you attempting to identify outliers and trends?
Do I have the right chart?
Choosing a Chart Type
There are five primary types of visual mappings that content creators and consumers should
understand:

1. Comparison, represented as a bar


2. Spatial, represented as a map
3. Temporal, represented as a line
4. Compare two measures, represented as a scatterplot
5. Precise number, represented as a text table
Line — Viewing trends in data over time. Examples: Stock price change over a five-year
period, website page views during a month, revenue growth by quarter.

Bar — Comparing data across categories. Examples: Volume of shirts in different sizes,
website traffic by origination site, percent of spending by department.

Heat Map — Showing the relationship between two factors. Examples: Segmentation
analysis of target market, product adoption across regions, sales leads by individual rep.

Highlight Table — Providing detailed information on heat maps. Examples: The percent of a
market for different segments, sales numbers in a particular region, population of cities in
different years.

Treemap — Showing hierarchical data as a proportion of a whole. Examples: Storage usage


across computer machines, managing the number and priority of technical support cases,
comparing fiscal budgets between years.
Gantt — Showing duration over time. Examples: Project timeline, duration of a machine’s
use, availability of players on a team.

Bullet — Evaluating performance of a metric against a goal. Examples: Sales quota


assessment, actual spending vs. budget, performance spectrum (great/good/poor).

Scatterplot — Investigating the relationship between different variables. Examples: Male


versus female likelihood of having lung cancer at different ages, technology early adopters’
and laggards’ purchase patterns of smart phones, shipping costs of different product
categories to different regions.

Histogram — Understanding the distribution of your data. Examples: Number of customers


by company size, student performance on an exam, frequency of a product defect.

Symbol maps — Use for totals rather than rates. Be careful, as small differences will be hard
to see. Examples: Number of customers in different geographies.
Comparison
Composition
Distribution
Relationship
Dashboard Flow
What is a dashboard?
“A dashboard is a visual
“A dashboard is a visual display of the most
display of data used to monitor
important information needed to achieve
conditions and/or facilitate
one or more objectives; consolidated and
understanding”
arranged on a single screen so the
information can be monitored at a glance.”
Big Book of Dashboards
Stephen Few (2017)
(2004)
TO R
O R A
XP L
E Y
NEUT R A L
•Exploratory:

Good exploratory visualizations explain what is going on.

Just the facts. Allows the end user to complete their own analysis based on the data.
na t or y
PL A
EX
OPINIONAT
ED
Poojah Gandhi
https://public.tableau.com/profile/poojagandhi#!/vizhome/IronViz-PhiladelphiaCrimeScene/PhiladelphiaCrimeScene
What makes a good dashboard?
Answers a set of questions
Follows a flow and invites interactivity
Condensed; primarily in the form of summaries and
exceptions
Specific to and customized for the dashboard’s audience
and objectives
Provides appropriate text for clarity and direction, if
needed
Makes strategic use of color
Layout
What are you emphasizing?
Inverted Pyramid
Most Newsworthy Info
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

Important Details

Other General
Info
Filters at the top, so user knows when
and how to start interacting

Most important information at the top


and centered

Starts with the highest level and


works down to more precise details

No more than 4-5 worksheets


Does your dashboard pass the 5 second test?

Most important view is on top or top left


Legends are near their views
Avoid multiple color schemes
Uses 5 or fewer views (charts)
Chart Type & Dashboard Flow Hands-on
What dashboard changes did you make?
Did anyone change a chart type?
Pre-Attentive Processing
Length Width Orientation Size Shape

Enclosure 2D Position Grouping Color (Hue) Color (Intensity)


Hue Saturation
Tone

Shade Tint
Using Hue
Qualitative / Categorical
Using Saturation
Relationship /Sequence Quantitative / Numerical
Maintain Color Identities

Once a color is assigned to an attribute,


be consistent with the usage of that color.

This eliminates confusion and establishes


identity throughout a workbook.
Title
A concise, descriptive title can make a huge
difference in garnering attention and making a
chart more memorable
Which title is more impactful?
Tooltips can make the difference between a user loving
your visualization and not understanding it.
Tips for improving the basic tooltip
Use a proper font
Identify the most important part of the tool tip and make it your title
Change measure names/values to make them specific and understandable
Include proper units
Remove command prompts

Default
vs
Modified

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