Tableau is one of the leading analytics platforms in the world that has become a go-to for data visualizations for numerous data analysts across the world. Despite its relatively intuitive interface, some users may have to spend some time practicing with the software to master it. As you become more well-versed with the software, you can begin creating high-powered data dashboards and visualisations. In this article, we will outline a few tips and tricks beginners must keep in mind and use when working with Tableau to enhance their data visualizations.
Tableau allows users to either join or blend their data within the confines of the software itself. To create correlations between different sets of data or data sources, for example – an Excel file and a data pull from Google Analytics – you must blend them based on any common variable between the sources. The process of blending takes place within a sheet in Tableau automatically sometimes. However, if this does not happen, you can facilitate the process by clicking the Blend icon in Tableau. Also, if your data source, say an Excel sheet has multiple tabs that you want to merge together, you can join these tabs in the Data Source tab using Inner Join, Outer Join, Left Join, Right Join and other such features.
If you have to create similar-looking visualizations on a weekly or monthly basis as part of your job, this trick can save you a significant amount of time. So long as you keep your data formatted or pull directly from Google Analytics or other sources, all you need to do is update the data ranges for it to reflect in your visuals. Want the automation to be even more time-conserving? Take it one step further and create calculated fields that automatically update the data range for you every time additions or changes are made to the source.
Tableau comes equipped with color palettes which users can choose from for their data visualisations. If you want a bit of customization in the color palettes, Tableau has you covered. Users can create and use their own custom color palettes by modifying the Preferences.tps file on Tableau Desktop. In an instance where you don't know the HEX values for the colors you want in your custom palette, you can simply use a color grabbing tool to input the exact color you require into Tableau. Custom color palettes can prove to be extremely useful for when you're tasked by a certain company to create data visualizations for them. You can custom create color palettes that match the company's brand colors precisely.
Tableau makes arranging visuals and legends extremely easy within dashboards, especially if you want to keep your visualisations consistent across different presentations. Tableau has the ability to let users create a sample formatting workbook and they can easily copy the created formatting from one sheet to another, as long as the data sets are somewhat similar. When you're creating a new viz and are ready to include your premade template, open your style template workbook. Locate the sheet with the formatting you want to use, right-click on the tab at the bottom of the screen and select 'Copy Formatting'. Then you can head over to the new viz, locate the sheet which you want the premade formatting on and 'Paste Formatting'.
Not only is Tableau a very capable data visualization software, but it is also a powerful data management and clean up tool. Your data source doesn't need to be absolutely perfect before you import it into Tableau. Going through a large data set and making sure everything is in order to be read and displayed accurately is an extremely tedious process. Even if your data is in less than ideal condition, you can bring it over to Tableau. The software can understand data issues such as inconsistencies, missing data, and repetitive data quickly and then automatically make the necessary changes to it in order to save your time and resources. If the software finds any anomalies, it will prompt you to turn on the Tableau Data Interpreter which can get to work and clean your data rapidly.
If you are tasked with designing a report with multiple visualizations, charts and graphs, it always helps a great deal to use a grid layout. Additional elements such as views, filters and / or titles can also be placed in a grid format. This helps in two major ways. Firstly, this will ensure that everything you have created and placed is symmetrical and lined up perfectly. Secondly, your report will flow smoothly and become easier to interpret. It provides a natural reading order for your dashboard which guides users in a predictable and logical manner. You can use both column or row-based flow to create a narrative that looks aesthetically-pleasing and reads well.
Typography is tremendously important when creating data visualizations. While using too many varied fonts can certainly be tempting since they are at your disposal, it is wise to steer clear from doing this and instead, defining a clear hierarchy for your typography is beneficial. In the image above, you can see that there are top, mid and low-level fonts present. The mid-level is colored blue to draw the viewer's attention since it will highlight what the data representation is about. Remember that color draws eyes to itself. Apart from this, all the fonts are not too radically different from each other which helps avoid common issues such as confusion and clutter.
This trick is something you can adopt once you have perfected the basics of using the software. It works extremely well since animations and interactive data visualizations draw in viewers simply because of the flair. As an example, let's say you're creating a visualization of the population across the states of India during a span of years (say 10 years). The population is plotted on the Y-axis and states are displayed on the X-axis. You can make use of Tableau's Page Shelf feature to create an animated viz of how the population has changed over the years. You can check this link – https://dgit.in/AnimatedDataViz – to see the step by step process of creating one such animated data visualization in Tableau.