Adding value to visualizations

Now that we’ve considered how formatting works in Tableau, let’s look at some ways in which formatting can add value to a visualization.

When you apply custom formatting, always ask yourself what the formatting adds to the understanding of the data. Is it making the visualization clearer and easier to understand? Or is it just adding clutter and noise?

In general, try a minimalistic approach. Remove everything from the visualization that isn’t necessary. Emphasize important values, text, and marks, while de-emphasizing those that are only providing support or context.

Consider the following visualization, all using default formatting:

Figure 7.17: The default formatting is often great for data discovery and quick analysis but may be more cluttered than desired for clearly communicating and emphasizing the data story to others

The default format works fairly well, but compare that to this visualization:

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