Building Better Dashboards PART 1: BASIC DASHBOARDS

Transcription

1 Building Better Dashboards PART 1: BASIC DASHBOARDS For Questions or Feedback Alexandria Skrivanich or Michael Carpenter 1

2 CREATING & LABELING NEW DASHBOARDS Dashboard 1 1. Click twice on the dashboard icon to create two new dashboards. 2. Label the first dashboard Customer Summary. Label the second dashboard Customer Analysis. We are going to navigate from Customer Summary to Customer Analysis. 3. *OPTIONAL. Color dashboard tab by right clicking on the title and selecting Color. 2

3 DASHBOARD SIZING 1. Before building a dashboard select the size the dashboard needs to be for optimal viewing. Selecting the size before building will save formatting time later. 2. If you need to see the same dashboard on multiple devices on Tableau Server. Duplicate the dashboard once built and change the size to the other layouts needed. You may need to change some formatting on the duplicates. Duplicate a dashboard by right clicking on the dashboard s tab and selecting Duplicate Sheet. 3

4 DRAG & DROP VISUALS ONTO THE CUSTOMER SUMMARY DASHBOARD 1. Create a dashboard like reading a book- left to right, top to bottom. Click and drag these visuals on to the blank dashboard in order. Items sold Growth- drag to the top of Items Sold till a grey box is highlighted. Map- drag to the left of Customer Growth. *Notice the different legends and quick filters will also appear on the right of the dashboard 2. These visual are in tiles that are fixed to the formatting of the dashboard. 3. If the visuals do not fill up the entire tile, select the tile and on the tool bar change the view setting to Entire View. There are also other options available. 4. Change the titles for each visual by hovering your mouse over the title and right clicking. Select Edit Title. An Edit box will appear. Type in a title that is simple and easy. Make the title for the end consumer. They need to be able to quickly grasp the content of the visual. 4

5 DRAG & DROP VISUALS ONTO THE CUSTOMER ANALYSIS DASHBOARD 1. Click and drag a HORIZONTAL tile onto the dashboard. It will fill the entire dashboard. 2. Click and drag these visuals on to the blank dashboard in order. Scatterplot Outliers drag to the top of the tile until you see a thin line like in the visual to the right. 3. Hide titles by hovering your mouse above the title you want to edit. Right click and select Hide Title. 4. Change which sheet you are viewing by using the Chart Type parameter on the right of the dashboard. When you select the different charts the legends associated with them will fill out. 5

6 ADD A TITLE 1. On the toolbar at the top of the Tableau Desktop application click Dashboard. Click show title. Repeat this step for on both dashboards. A tile will appear on the top of the dashboard with the dashboard number or name on it. 2. On Customer Summary Dashboard double click the title. An Edit box will appear. Type in Know Your Customer. Highlight and select bold typeface. Click Apply to see the change but remain in the editing box or OK to make the change and leave the editing box. 6

7 ADDING QUICK FILTERS 1. Some visuals will not have all of the quick filters you want on them. To add quick filters without going back to the sheet click the carrot on the upper right hand corner of the visual. On the drop down menu select Quick filter and add the data field you want to filter by. *The data fields that will show up in this menu are already apparent on the visual in some form. To add a quick filter from a data field that is not on the visual in some way you need to go to the sheet. To get the quick filter to show up remove the visual and bring it out again. 2. Change the filter type by clicking on the carrot on the filter and from the drop down menu select the filter you want to apply. There are seven filter types to select. Only one filter type can be applied to each filter at a time. However you can have several different filter types on a dashboard. 7

8 MOVING FILTERS AROUND: FROM RIGHT TO LEFT CUSTOMER SUMMARY DASHBOARD 1. It s a visual best practice to create dashboard to read from left to right. So if you want to have the end consumer start using the dashboard by selecting a filter, move the filter to the right of the dashboard. 2. Select a HORIZONTAL tile and drag it to the leftmost side of the dashboard. 3. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the filter you want to move. While holding down the control key move the filter over the HORIZONTAL tile. Release the Ctrl key. The filter will snap into the HORIZONTAL tile. It might take a little practice to get the hang of it. If you get your first try, you re a superstar! 4. Once the filters are snapped into their new placement, feel free to drag them into a better order. Make the order as explicit as possible to improve dashboard comprehension. 8

9 EDITING LEGENDS, FILTER TITLES & FORMATTING 1. Sometimes you need to change the titles of the filters to make more sense for the end user. This could be typing in a longer name that gives more context or using the title as a direction of what to do. 2. Click on the legend or filter. Right click and select Edit title. *OPTIONAL - Format legends to be aligned differently, be shaded or have borders. This is found in the same drop down menu as Edit Title. Format the arrangement of filters and legends by selecting Arrange Items. 3. Filter via a visual by clicking on a visuals carrot and selecting use as filter. 9

10 ADDING A LOGO 1. Adding a logo or picture is a great way to customize a dashboard without a lot of effort. 2. Find the image you want to use and size it appropriately. This can easily be accomplished in Paint, an application in most Windows OS computers. Save the image as a.png. 3. In Tableau Desktop, select IMAGE from the left interface. This will open up your documents. Navigate to the location where the file is saved. Select and click Open. The image will appear in as a tile. Often you don t want your logos to take up too much real estate on your dashboard. Move it into your HORIZONTAL tile on the left or click the tiles carrot and select floating. Selecting floating will allow a lot of placement flexibility. 10

11 ADDING DASHBOARD-TO-DASHBOARD NAVIGATION 1. This type of navigation is always added via a visual. Create a calculated field with the text as string in quotes. Example. Drag the calculation out onto the columns or row shelf. Change the chart type to get rid of the text box to the right or to a radio button like appearance with a shape chart. 2. Drag the visual Navigation out onto the dashboard. 3. Hide the title. 4. Format by right click and selecting Format. Through formatting you can get the appearance of a filled in button. 5. On the toolbar select Dashboard and click on Action. 6. Select filter Add Action. 7. Name the filter and have it drill from Dashboard 1 Navigation to Dashboard Click Ok. 11

12 ADDING SUMMARY NUMBERS 1. Adding summary numbers is really important for an high level dashboard to give the user a quick glimpse of what is going on very quickly. 2. Create this summary scorecard by adding your key metrics to a new sheet and then selecting a text table. Right click and select Format in the table to change typeface, shading, or font color. 3. Add this sheet to your dashboard underneath the title. THIS ENTIRE WORKBOOK WLL BE AVAILABLE TILL THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2013 AT USERNAME: TCC PASSWORD: TCC2013 THIS IS A TABLEAU HOSTED SERVER 12