Building Better Dashboards PART 1: BASIC DASHBOARDS

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Building Better Dashboards

PART 1: BASIC DASHBOARDS

For Questions or Feedback

Alexandria Skrivanich or Michael Carpenter

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Click Steps Screenshots

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’.

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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’.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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!

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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’.

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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.

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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 2.

8. Click Ok.

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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 http://demo.tableausoftware.com/

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