11. Data Visualizations with Tableau

🎯 Learning Goals

Explore advanced visualization techniques in Tableau

Utilize calculated fields and parameters for dynamic insights

Design engaging, insightful dashboards and story points that effectively communicate data-driven narratives

📗 Technical Vocabulary

Filtering Data

Sorting

Dual-Axis Charts

Color Encoding

Aggregations

Blending Data

Customizing Colors & Themes

Adding Images & Branding

🌤️

Warm-Up | Observing a Data Visualization Before Recreating It

Before we even open Tableau, let’s analyze a data visualization! Take a few minutes to look at the finished dashboard we’ll be building today and consider the following:

What story is the visualization telling?

What elements stand out to you? (Colors, layout, labels, interactions?)

What types of charts do you see?

How do filters or interactive elements change the data being displayed?

🏗 Recreate the Dashboard in Tableau

Now it’s time to try rebuilding this dashboard from scratch in Tableau! To start, make a copy of this Starter Template. It has the empty worksheets pre-created for you.

Exercise 1: App Categories

Objective: Create a simple bar chart showing the count of apps by Category

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "Category" to the Rows shelf

From the Data pane, drag "googleplaystore_cleaned.csv" (or "Number of Records") to the Columns shelf

Tableau will automatically aggregate this as COUNT

Sort the bars by clicking the sort button in the toolbar

Try both ascending and descending sorts

What insights do you notice about the most/least common app categories?

Filtering Technique:
5. From the Data pane, drag "Rating_Category" to the Filters shelf
6. Select only "High" and "Very High" ratings
7. Notice how the distribution changes when filtering for highly-rated apps

Sorting Technique:
8. Right-click on the Category axis and select "Sort..."

Exercise 2: Ratings Over Time

Objective: Create a line chart showing average ratings by year

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "Last_Updated_Year" to the Columns shelf

From the Data pane, drag "Rating" to the Rows shelf. Make sure this is aggregated as AVG(Rating).

Add depth by dragging "Category" to the Color shelf

This will create multiple lines, one for each category

Filter to show only the top 5 categories by dragging "Category" to Filters

Click "Top" tab

Select "By Field"

Choose "Top 5" by "Count of App"

Exercise 3: Top Apps by Reviews

Objective: Create a bar chart showing the top 10 apps by number of Reviews

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "App" to the Rows shelf

From the Data pane, drag "Reviews" to the Columns shelf. Make sure it’s changed to AVG.

Add a filter for the top 10 apps:

Right-click on "App" in the Rows shelf

Select "Filter..."

Click the "Top" tab

Select "Top 10" by "Sum of Reviews"

Add context by dragging "Category" to the Color shelf

Exercise 4: Free vs. Paid Apps

Objective: Create a grouped bar chart comparing counts of Free vs. Paid apps by Category

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "Category" to the Rows shelf

From the Data pane, drag "Type" to the Columns shelf

From the Data pane, drag "googleplaystore_cleaned.csv" to the Rows shelf (it will become COUNT(googleplaystore_cleaned.csv"))

Grouping Technique:
5. Filter to show only the top 10 categories:

Drag "Category" to the Filters shelf

Click the "Top" tab

Select "Top 10" by "Count of App"

Exercise 5: Rating vs. Reviews

Objective: Create a scatter plot showing the relationship between Rating and Reviews

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "Rating" to the Columns shelf. Make sure it’s set to SUM.

From the Data pane, drag "Reviews" to the Rows shelf. Make sure it’s set to SUM.

Change the mark type to "Circle" using the dropdown in the Marks card

Add context by dragging:

"Category" to the Color shelf

"Installs" to the Size shelf

"App" to the Tooltip shelf

Exercise 6: Category & Content Rating

Objective: Create a heat map showing average Rating by Category and Content Rating

Steps:

From the Data pane, drag "Category" to the Rows shelf

From the Data pane, drag "Content Rating" to the Columns shelf

From the Data pane, drag "Rating" to the Color shelf. Change it to AVG(Rating).

Change the mark type to "Square" using the dropdown in the Marks card

Add labels by dragging "Rating" to the Label shelf

Right-click on the field in the Label shelf

Select "Format..."

Set the number format to show 1 decimal place

Hover over FAMILY and exclude that one dataset as it is skewing the rest of our heat map.

Color Encoding Technique:
6. Click on the Color legend
7. Select "Edit Colors..."
8. Choose a sequential color palette (e.g., from white to dark blue)

Lastly! Dashboard with Filters

Objective: Create a dashboard combining multiple visualizations with interactive filters

Steps:

First, let’s create our dashboard by heading to the bottom of the screen. You should see a tab that says Data Source, along with several of the sheets that you created. Just like how you created a sheet, this time select the New Dashboard icon.

Add 3-4 of your previously created sheets to the dashboard by dragging and dropping from the Sheets Pane on the left-hand side of the workspace.

Let’s add a filter action!

At the top of the screen in the banner area that has File, Data, Worksheet, etc. you’ll see another tab for Dashboard. Click into it and in the drop down, choose the option that says Actions.

In the pop-up window, select the Add Action tab and choose Filter.

Under “Source Sheets” choose a sheet that will be the one interacted with by the user (e.g., your Category bar chart).

In the side section that says “Run action on” choose Select. This one is up to personal preference, so feel free to adjust this setting to your liking.

Under “Target Sheets” select “Main Viz” in the drop down tab and make sure each sheet is check-marked. These sheets will respond to the action initiated by the source sheet.

Look to where it says “Filter” and make the change to Selected Fields. You will be prompted to input a source field, which for this case can be Category.

Get creative with your dashboard, there’s no right answers here!:

Arrange your visualizations in a logical flow - Try brainstorming what would most make sense if you were looking at this from the user’s perspective. Which elements can you make interactive, or what order best suits your design?
Add a title and description - Let your user know what this dashboard is about, as well as some information on your dataset. Providing context is especially important when explaining data!
Add text boxes with insights or questions - Explain your visualizations but also leave room for others to make their own takeaways from what is being presented. Highlight anything you found interesting along with any key statistics!
Add images! - A visually appealing dashboard tends to catch the eye more so than just one with facts and figures. Try using Canva to create your own designs!

To add an image, go to the Objects Pane on the bottom left-hand side of the workspace.

From there, you’ll see the Image object which can be used to import your image file of choice.

💡

For more information on creating a dashboard, consider checking out this Capstone Project Guide for a full walkthrough!

✏️

Practice | Build Your Own Data Dashboard

Create Your Dashboard (30 minutes)

<5 minutes> Use any dataset you want! (Kaggle.com is a great place to find one!)

<25 minutes> Apply at least 3 advanced visualization techniques covered in this lessons.

For a summary of this lesson, check out the 11. Data Visualizations with Tableau One-Pager!