All Visualizations Stories

Here at Tableau, we might be getting a little too excited about next week’s Star Wars release. But who can blame us? Star Wars basically has the perfect combination of brainy geekiness and excellent storytelling that we love here at Tableau.

Want more of your colleagues to dive into data? Introduce them to the data-informed way of life with an elegant dashboard about key metrics. A high-level dashboard that keeps the company updated at all levels and also drills down in seconds can help people evolve from passive consumers of data to self-service can-doers.

Oh, the poor, maligned pie chart. The chart type that gets pushed around and bullied on the data-viz playground more than any other.

Scatter plots are my favorite visualization type, hands down. From my very first interactive data graphic about The Great One to the most recent visualization below on major league pitchers, I’ve learned a great deal from these Cartesian classics over the years. In this post I’ll show you how to make them even better than the standard ones in Tableau.

I joined Tableau in September 2013 as a product consultant. We PCs are Tableau experts. We help with all things product-related, from technical sales to internal support and training, to content development. Basically, if you have a problem in Tableau, you get help from a PC. Every new PC starts working through the challenge workbook on the first day. The goal is to become an expert before ever getting on a customer call. This works so well for us internally that I thought it would only be fair to share with our community!

It was the 20 tensest minutes of all of Tableau Conference. Three of the world’s preeminent data artists gathered in Viz Stadium at the MGM Grand. Shine Pulikathara, Matt Chambers, and Skyler Johnson had all come to claim the same coveted glory. But as host Ross Perez made clear, “only one can walk away with the prize”—$2,000 and the title of Iron Viz Champion.

Tableau 9.1 lets you ask and answer more explicit questions of your data. Take advantage of these visual analytics features to dig deeper.

An effective data visualization lets users see and understand the data at the speed of thought. You can visualize data from biology labs, accounting case studies, or any other subject you’re studying to find answers faster. Here are five ways to improve the overall value of your dashboards.

A dashboard is only effective if it answers useful questions for people. That’s why a customized, user-specific dashboard is more impactful than a ready-made, one-size-fit-all report. Here at Tableau, we always design visualizations with the user in mind. Here are several techniques we use to customize our sales dashboards.

Can we set a default value for a quick filter based on an action? Don’t be too quick to say, “No!” That was my first inclination. But I was wrong; there is a way!

Radar charts are a great way to compare members of a dimension in a function of several metrics. For example, when you want to buy a smartphone, you can use a radar chart to compare several devices across several metrics like battery life, camera quality, and memory capacity.

One of my most popular dashboards on Tableau Public is a visualization about my career. Tableau is a tool that lets you paint with data, so your imagination is the limit on what you can build. Here are some tips to get you started on building your own visual résumé.