URL actions open up a new world of possibilities in Tableau dashboards. You can link to a URL field, look up a data point of interest, or even create an action that creates an email form. URL actions have been used to successfully linked sales opportunities to Salesforce, link furniture companies to their products on the web and generate emails to further discussion about data points of interest.
I recently finished a book called, Astroball written by Ben Reiter. It tells the unlikely story of how the Astros went from the worst team in baseball to winning a World Series a few seasons later. As much as I wish I could say I didn’t like the book (I’m a Mariners fan after all) it was a compelling read and gave me great insight into their organization and methodology.
Creating a calendar visual in Tableau can be an effective way of communicating data-based information to your end user. For example, using a calendar in an effective way of seeing that sales are highest on Saturdays for this restaurant.
Occasionally, you’ll come across scenarios in Tableau where you need more than the stock shapes that Tableau provides.
I recently read the book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Spoiler alert; I’m going to reveal a lot about the book’s plot.
This blog post is a continuation of a previous post. If you haven’t read the previous posts, check out steps 1-4 or steps 5-8.
This is a continuation of a previous blog post. You can find that here.
Dashboard design is difficult. You have a hundred different options for every element of design (colors, fonts, chart types). If you aren’t a natural Bob Ross, it might not feel that fun either. Here are a dozen simple ways to improve the look and feel of your dashboards.
If you’ve ever received an image file and noticed the background isn’t transparent, it’s likely that has caused you a problem.
Want to learn the steps it takes to answer analytical questions build a dashboard like this? Check out the webinar recording above!
I grew up in the Issaquah/Sammamish area of Washington State about 30 (depending on traffic 60) minutes east Seattle. When I was growing up there in the 1990s and 2000s I remember hearing comments from a lot of people that, “this area has the highest amount of high school students per capita anywhere in the state.”
Most programs like Excel, Tableau, Microsoft SQL Server and Alteryx have a built in Date Difference (DATEDIFF) function. This function is great at letting you set a unit of measurement (i.e. year, month, day) and calculate the difference between a start and an end point.
6. Receive Feedback and Iterate
After you’ve built an initial dashboard, it’s time to get feedback from users and iterate. If your dashboards are going to be used by a wide audience, pick a few of the users you trust to give you feedback. Pick the people who will be frank and honest with you. This isn’t the time to get pats on the back. This is a chance to get constructive criticism so your product is as polished as it can possibly be.
Have you ever read a story about someone finding a meteorite? It probably contained a fantastic story about a smoking space rock careening across the sky, striking the Earth, creating a big, smoking crater and the finder being there to miraculously witness it all and dig it out. It then gets valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars and the finder walks away wealthier.
Imagine you are working on the following dashboard:
You’re pleased with where it’s at overall, but you’ve run into a dilemma. The dashboard helps answer the overall question “Where should we invest our marketing dollars?”, but it’s very hard to compare individual states. Maps are great for high-level geographic overviews but poor for comparing individual values.
Thank goodness! In Tableau Desktop 2018.3 Tableau officially released the “button object” for use in dashboards. Historically, you had to create a separate worksheet and go through a complicated process to connect multiple dashboard via navigation buttons. Not anymore!