At TC19, Claire @bournetoviz and I made a pack to watch 12 TC sessions by the next conference. That’s our #Data19Challenge. In order to hold myself accountable, I decided to write a review about each session. To learn more about joining us, please visit my blog titled What’s the #Data19Challenge. https://analyticswithlohr.com/2019/12/03/whats-the-data19challenge/
The first video I watched was Zen Master: 3…,2…,1..GO! Two-Minute Tips and Tricks by Luke Stanke and Jeffrey Shaffer. This was a session that I was really interested in attending in person, but it conflicted with the Tableau Tip Battle. I believe many of us felt conflicted on which sessions to attend due to the shortened schedule and overlap. I’m grateful Tableau shares the sessions for viewing at later time.
In this session, Luke and Jeff covered tips related to KPIs, Mappings, Data Densification, Top N – Bottom N to name a few. I’m not going to go in detail about how they accomplished these tips and tricks – its up to you to watch the video and learn from Jeff and Luke. However, here is a summary of what was shared.
Tip 1: Formatting a y-axis to remove the zero from the Axis.
Tip 2: Remove color from the bar chart, add a border, and use the worksheet background for color.
Tip 3: Mapping – modifying custom layers, removing base layers, format shading and pane color to create a different map than the standard Tableau map.
Tip 4: Top N and Bottom N with Other (everything in-between) all in one worksheet with the use of calculations.
Tip 5: Applying a color legend to one column versus several columns in the view, alignment of the shape and color to have it look like a KPI in that one column.
Tip 6: Data Densification – sparse data and missing dates. How do we get domain completion when the data isn’t there? Jeff shows us how the index function and show missing values option is used to alleviate data densification.
Tip 7: Month over Month and Year over Year calculations. Luke shows us how to use the last function to populate the values in the view and then builds a show/hide calculation to modify that view.
Tip 8: Solving for missing dates in a calendar view. Jeff shows us how to use min and max dates based on the view to create a calendar that doesn’t have data densification. He demonstrates using transparent sheets on dashboards with two calendar views.
Tip 9: Simple KPI – Luke demonstrates a way to control space for each KPI using 0.0 as a place holder on columns and measures on text. He walks us through several KPI calculations and the use of the Last Date of Most Recent Month calculation for perfect KPIs. The steps taken can be repeated in any KPI dashboard with dates and measures for consistent KPI reporting.
Tip 10 – Creating a line charge by using a stacked area and a shape.
I really enjoyed Luke and Jeff’s presentation. I feel that many of the tips they covered can be used in my organization’s development of dashboards. Being that my main audience is executives and directors, I also build a lot of KPI dashboards and trend reports. In fact, tip 7 is going to be very helpful for showing that month over month year over year comparison without having the issue of the first data point missing. I can definitely say I walked away with some useful pointers that can be put into practice today. You won’t be disappointed if you watch this session.
Here is the link to the video if you missed this at the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnP7zP8J_7g&t=1021s