Phew, that was a lot of Tableau! Here’s a refresher with everything we’ve covered - you can use this page as a reference in all your future Tableau endeavors.

Essential components of Tableau

• Drag fields from the data pane to the columns and rows shelf to create visualizations, and filter out data in the Filters Shelf.

• Stylize and adjust the chart type using the Marks Card. The Show Me tab shows us all the charts available. To break the viz into different views, we can use the Pages Shelf.

Starting on Paper

• Sketch on paper first and consider the following questions: What is the purpose of this viz and what are the research questions, who is the audience, and what actionable insights can be taken?

Dimensions and Measures

• We can configure dimensions and measures in numerous ways, resulting in different visualizations, by dragging them into different shelves or marks.

Marks Cards

• Use marks to customize the chart type, chart-specific properties, color, size, label, detail and tooltips.

Adjusting Presets

• For a customized look, we can make changes to default Presets including fonts, axes, legends, and worksheet/chart properties.

Storytelling

• Seven approaches to data storytelling are change over time, drill down, zoom out, contrast, intersections, factors, and outliers.
• Keep the viz simple with the purpose, audience, and actionable insights in mind, while utilizing aesthetic properties to strengthen our story’s theme.

Dashboarding

• Dashboards are a collection of vizzes created by dragging different worksheets into the view.
• Practice strategic positioning, sticking within 4 views and having a main focal point to maintain good visual balance.

Congratulations on completing the Data Visualization with Tableau lesson!