20130531

Tableau 8 Reading Pointers, February-May 2013

RedBinaries




  • Very popular article from Stephen Few about Tableau losing the clear vision of its youth collected 49 comments from known experts : http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=1532 and most interesting, 50th comment came from Stephen fimself: "I recently learned that when my review of Tableau 8 was published, Tableau employees were forbidden from responding publicly".




  • UK Boundary Polygon Data from Information Lab: http://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/2013/03/25/uk-area-polygon-mapping-in-tableau/




  • Sample of how to use DataExtract API with C#/.NET: http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/203714#203714




  • Tableau Data Blending, Sparse Data, Multiple Levels of Granularity, and Improvements in Version 8: http://drawingwithnumbers.artisart.org/tableau-data-blending-sparse-data-multiple-levels-of-granularity-and-improvements-in-version-8/






  • Tableau Custom SQL connections through the JET driver: https://www.interworks.com/blogs/jwright/2013/02/22/musings-tableau-custom-sql-connections-through-jet-driver




  • Software company XL Cubed has incorporated Bandlines into their product, but comments to post showing that Tableau has it fro a while too: http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=1485




  • Stepheb Few introduced Bandlines as Sparklines Enriched with Information about Magnitude and Distribution: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/introducing_bandlines.pdf




NearBy1920
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20130524

Good Practices for Data Visualization

Below you can find samples of Guidelines and Good Practices for Data Visualization (mostly with Tableau), which I used recently.


best-practiceSome of this samples are Tableau-specific, but others (may be with modifications) can be reused for other Data Visualization Platform and tools. I will appreciate feedback, comments and suggestions.


Naming Convention for Tableau Objects




  • Use CamelCase Identifiers: Capitalize the 1st letter of each concatenated word




  • Use Suffix for Identifiers with preceding underscore to indicate the type (example: _tw for workbooks).




Workbook Sizing Guidelines




  • Use Less than 5 Charts per Dashboard, Minimize the number of Visible TABs/Worksheets




  • Move Calculations and Functions from Workbook to the Data.




  • Use less than 5000 Data-points per Chart/Dashboard to enable Client-side rendering.




  • To enable Shared Sessions, don't use filters and interactivity if it is not needed.




Guidelines for Colors, Fonts, Sizes




  • To express desirable/undesirable points, use green for good, red for bad, yellow for warning.




  • When you are not describing "Good-Bad situation" (thanks to feedback of visitor under alias "SF") , try to use pastel, neutral and blind colors, e.g. similar to "Color Blind 10" Palette from Tableau.




  • Use "web-safe" fonts, to approximate what users can see from Tableau Server.




  • Use either auto-resize or standard (target smaller screen) sizes for Dashboards




Data and Data Connections used with Tableau




  • Try to avoid pulling more than 15000 rows for Live Data Connections.




  • For Data Extract-based connections 10M rows is the recommended maximum.




  • For widely distributed Workbooks use of Application IDs instead of Personal Credentials.




  • Job failure due expired credentials leads to suspension from Schedule, so try to keep embedded credentials up to date




5Options

Tableau Data Extracts (TDE)




  • If Refresh of TDE takes more than 2 hours, consider to redesign it.




  • Reuse and share TDEs and Data Sources as much as possible.




  • Use of Incremental Data Refresh instead of Full Refresh when possible.




  • Designate Unique ID for each row when Incremental Data Refresh is used.




  • Try to use free Tableau Data Exract API instead of licensed Tableau Server to create Data Extracts




Scheduling of Background Tasks with Tableau




  • Serial Schedules is recommended; avoid the usage of hourly Schedules.




  • Avoid scheduling during peak hours (8am-6pm), consider weekly instead of daily schedules.




  • Optimize Schedule Size, group tasks related to the same project into one Schedule, if total tasks execution exceeds 8 hours, split Schedule on a few with similar Name but preferably with different starting time.




  • Maximize the usage of Monthly and Weekly Schedules (as oppose to Daily Schedules) and usage of weekends and nights.




Guidelines for using Charts




  • Use Bars to compare across categories, use Colors with Stacked or Side-by-Side Bars for deeper Analysis




  • Use Line for Viewing Trends over time, consider Area Charts for Multi-lines




  • Minimize the usage of Pie Charts; when appropriate - use it for showing proportions. It is recommended to limit pie wedges to six.




  • Use Map to show geocoded data, consider use maps as interactive filters




  • Use Scatter to analyze outliers, clusters and construct regressions




Guideline960

You can find more about Guidelines and Good Practices for Data Visualization here: http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/community/best-practices

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20130503

Column and Trellis Charts in Tableau

Sample of Column, Line and Trellis Charts and Grid in Tableau, using unemployment data for 63 years since 1948:
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/US-Monthly-Unemployment-1948-2010/MonthlyUnemployment1948-2010?

Here is a Trellis (you can scroll it down and up):
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