Tableau Power Start Workshop

Chart showing the increase of available data has gone beyond our ability to understand data available

Why Tableau? (click to expand)
Whether we are ready or not, we are in a period in human history where the volume, variety and velocity of data have far outpaced our innate abilities to make sense of this data. This is where Tableau can help.

Learning Tableau will not only help you increase your value in the job market and have a greater professional impact, it will also help make you a better citizen of the world.

This Tableau Power Start Workshop is meant to help you get started in asking better questions of your data.

The Tableau ecosphere can be overwhelming. For a great 10 minute introduction on what Tableau “is,” see here

How To Get Your Free Tableau Desktop Software (click to expand)

STEP 1. [Required] DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL YOUR FREE TABLEAU DESKTOP PUBLIC APPLICATION

To download and install the Tableau program used in this class, go to https://www.tableau.com/products/public/download, complete the form and then click the “Download the App” button to begin your download. Open the downloaded file, accept the terms and conditions and click on “Install” button.

If you are having problems in this step, see this video.

STEP 2. [Required] REGISTER WITH TABLEAU PUBLIC

To create your Tableau Public account, go to https://public.tableau.com/app/discover, click on the button “Sign Up for Tableau Public” and provide the requested information. (Tableau Public is a free web-based platform that allows you to publish and share your Tableau vizs and dashboards with others.)

STEP 3. [Required] SIGN UP FOR THE TABLEAU VIZ OF THE DAY EMAIL

Go to https://public.tableau.com/app/discover/viz-of-the-day and click on the “Subscribe” button and enter your email address. This is a daily email from Tableau highlighting contributions from the more than 3 million Tableau Public registered users. (Warning, some of these vizs, while very pretty, might not demonstrate best practices for visualizing data in the professional workplace which is the focus of this class.)

Tableau Resources (click to expand)

  • Free Tableau Guide Book

    As a quick search on Amazon will show you, there is no shortage of excellent books to help you learn Tableau. To augment these resources, Tableau also offers a super useful (but super long) interactive PDF file for your reference. Click here to download this extensive free resource.

  • Learning Resources for Students

    Tableau for Students (build a resume in Tableau, see examples here)

  • Tableau Chart Guides and Tutorials
  • Tableau Calculations Tutorials
  • Community/Learning Resources (Tableau is not just a great product; it is a great community!)
    • Makeover Monday – My top recommendation for learning Tableau! Each Sunday a new dataset is released, and hundreds of people build and share visualizations using this dataset over the week.
    • Best of the Tableau Web – Nowadays, it seems everyone is a blogger. To get introduced to the wide world of Tableau Blogs, go here, pull down the Topic filter and choose Community.
    • DC Tableau User Group – monthly meetings; network and find a job
  • Where to Find Data to Analyze
    • Tableau’s Post on Finding Data – Gives a nice overview on how to get started on finding and cleaning data.  Good resource list at the end.
    • Tableau Public Data Set Catalog – This is a collection of data sets Tableau provides to invite downloads and exploration as well as web authoring.
    • Data.Gov – This is a website of pointers to U.S. Government data. In my opinion, it is a little lame. Some of the pointers lead to nonexistent or poorly-formatted data.  The site has very lofty goals even if it does not fully meet them.  Nevertheless, it is an important first stop for anyone seeking data about a specific topic.
    • Kaggle.com – – A popular data sharing site.  Some datasets are well suited for Tableau analysis; others are better suited to different tools/techniques (e.g., machine learning, sentiment analysis, network analysis, etc.).  I like this site because it gives a “usability” rating for each dataset and has better search capabilities than other sites (I’m looking at you, Data.World).
    • Data.World – Another popular data sharing site.  Content is posted by users and has varying levels of coverage and quality. 
    • Data is Plural – This is a highly addictive weekly email providing links to a wide-ranging and idiosyncratic list of datasets. A spreadsheet of past datasets listed can be found here.  Take a second and look at the different types of datasets that are out there in the wild (start at the bottom for most recent)!
    • ACLED – International Public Policy students, take note of this! Curated dataset on Armed Conflict Locations and Events. For even more international public policy datasets, see those listed on the bottom of this page
  • Tableau Sponsored Learning
  • Organizations You Should Know About

    • Workshop Week 1

    1. Welcome to the workshop. In Week 1 we will start with an overview of Tableau and learn how to do some basic chart types. Mostly we will be following the Week 1 Workbook linked to below. You might want to have it available for reference, but mostly you will be following along with the instructor. For sure, you will want to download and have available the Week 1 Dataset on your computer.
    2. More on what makes a “good” visualization
    3. More on pie charts (do they really “subtract knowledge from the world?”)
    4. Less is More (effective) – see Tufte’s principle of Data to Ink Ratio explored here – (Bar Charts, Tables, Maps, Pie Charts(?!?))
    5. Assignment: Download this 2/23/2020 Makeover Monday dataset looking at which traits pro and anti Brexit British people would find acceptable/unacceptable for the next actor to portray James Bond and create 1) your choice of visualization and 2) Likert bars showing results. Upload visualizations to your Tableau Public Account.
      (Original Visualization, Makeovers, Viz Review Webinar, Top 5)(Google “Likert Chart Tableau,” Good Likert Post, Good Likert Video, Another Good Likert Video)

    Workshop Week 2

    1. This week we are going to primarily use a dataset that ships with Tableau (the 🔥World Indicators dataset under the Welcome Page’s “Saved Data Sources” header on the left). We will begin by building on the basic chart types we learned in Week 1 and then extend. Our focus will include:
      • Mapping
      • Data Table analysis
      • Filters (static and interactive)
      • Calculations
      • Grouping
    2. I am a huge fan of Cole Knaffic’s Storytelling with Data book series. She has offered much of the series exercise materials to the learning community here. If you liked the “Big Idea Worksheet” shown in this week’s session, you can download it here.
    3. Assignments:
      1. Assignment A: Have a try visualizing another Makeover Monday dataset. Makeover Monday 8/29/22 – Military Budgets. Click here to review some of the submissions on Twitter, here to view the Watch Andy Kriebel Viz session for this dataset, and here for the Viz Review.
      2. Assignment B: Bullet Charts. In my opinion, Bullet Charts are the most generally insightful chart type that has been invented in the last hundred years. To my regret, I do not have time to teach them in this workshop! For your Assignment B, find 3 tutorials (Tableau help files, public blogs or public videos) that explain what they are and how to create them in Tableau.
    4. More “unconventional” chart types I love: Dumbell Charts, Jump Plots, Lexis Charts, Wheat Plots, Unit Histograms, Time Lapse Comparisons, Layered Maps, Icicle Charts.
    5. Optional: Itching to grow your Tableau muscles a bit more? Try your hand with this dataset while following this workshop workbook.

    Workshop Week 3

    1. This week we will continue to build on the chart types and techniques learned in the first two weeks. Additional topics to be covered include:
      • Messy Data (data cleaning and pivoting) – for more on messy/tidy data see here (public policy students, also look here)
      • Building and sharing dashboards (for best results, make sure you have a Tableau Public account in order to publish your dashboard)
      • Story Points
      • A brief look at Tableau Prep (included with your Tableau Academic License)
      • Best practices for keeping a project notebook and file naming conventions.
    2. Possible datasets that we might use this week include:
      1. 🔥SuperStore 2024 The Tableau Desktop Professional application ships with a dataset called “Superstore” that is used for the basis of well over 70% of the Tableau tutorials / blogs / videos you will find on the Internet. Sadly, it is not included in the current Tableau Desktop Public download. (Here is the Superstore Excel Calc Sheet used in some class discussions).
      2. 🔥Global Cereal Production (Some Submissions) (Watch Andy Viz Session) [Revised Dataset – Cereal Production With Different Granularity]
      3. 🔥Global Military Spending (Some Submissions) (Watch Andy Viz Session) [Revised Dataset – Military Spending With Different Granularity]
      4. 🔥Objects Launched Into Space
      5. Aid Worker Security Incidents Back to Viz Basics W17 2022 (Some Submissions)
      6. Caffeine Content Among Chains (Watch Andy Viz Session)
      7. Alcohol consumption trends in Briton (Article) (Makeovers)
      8. Sample KPI Data
      9. Women Representation in EU Parliaments (Some Submissions) (Watch Andy Viz Session) (Top Makeovers)
      10. US Federal Agency IT Investments (source)

    Where to go from here

    1. Practice, practice, practice. Tableau proficiency is a skill. Like all skills, it is earned through repetitive thoughtful practice. If you are in school, commit to using Tableau in it least one class this semester. For more practices and to build a Tableau Portfolio you can show to potential employers, try doing one Makeover Monday a month.
    2. Download and keep handy the “Workshop Cheat Sheet” for this workshop. Also, take a second and look at the Tableau resources highlighted in the Tableau Resources pull down at the top of this page.
    3. This workshop has introduced many best practices for designing data visualizations. For a great Tableau Dashboard summarizing the topics we’ve discussed, see here.
    4. Remember, you have a lifetime Tableau “lifeline.” If you do things right, you will hit some brick walls in learning Tableau. If you ever find yourself scratching your head asking “how can I make Tableau do this?”, drop me a line. I’d be happy to help.
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