Chapter 3. A First Dashboard and Exploration

This chapter is your first concrete introduction to Tableau. Together, we'll connect to data, create three visualizations, and assemble them in what will be your first Dashboard. Then, we'll use Tableau as a data exploration tool and answer business questions by using only the power of data visualization.

The following are the topics covered in this chapter:

• Connecting to data
• Creating a first set of visualizations
• Building your first Dashboard
• Using Tableau for data exploration

A few things before we start. Be not afraid. Two buttons on the toolbar will always save you:

• 
  : This lets you undo any actions, and, good news, it's unlimited. So if you make a mistake, use it!
• 
  : This lets you start from the beginning. It removes everything in the Worksheet or Dashboard. Start fresh start if you feel stuck somewhere!

Are you ready? Then double-click on the Tableau icon and let's get started.

 

Connect to data

For this first guided tutorial, we are using the Tableau iconic dataset: Sample-Superstore. This dataset is an Excel file about supermarket sales in the United States, contained in your Tableau repository folder. It's easy to understand and use. The Excel file is composed of three sheets: Orders, People, and Returns.

When you open Tableau, on the left, in the Connect area, click on Microsoft Excel:

• If you're a Mac user, navigate to Documents | My Tableau Repository | Data Source | [Your Tableau Version] | en_US-US and open the file named Sample - Superstore.xls
• If you're a Windows user, go to My Documents | My Tableau Repository | Data Source | [Your Tableau Version] | en_US-US and open the file named Sample - Superstore.xls

Note

If you can't find the file, you can download it from the Chapter 3: A First Dashboard and Exploration section on my website: book.ladataviz.com or by using this direct link: https://ladataviz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Sample-Superstore.xlsx. Then...

Create a first set of visualizations

After clicking on Sheet 1,you enter the Worksheet workplace. Here is where you create visualizations. One Worksheet answers one question.

You can also see that your data source is divided between Dimensions and Measures (please refer to Chapter 2, The Tableau Core, in the Measure and Dimension section). Let's create our first visualization.

Sales and profit by sub-categories – bar chart

The first question we'll answer is: what are the product sub-categories that generate the most sales and profits? Let's find out how to do that:

1. Double-click onSales in the Data Source. You should now see one bar. If you put the mouse over the bar, you should read Sales: 2,297,201. As a measure is always aggregated, here you can see the sum of all the sales.
2. On the Data Source, double-click on Sub-Category. The sub-categories now split the bar. A quick look can tell you that Chairs and Phones are the best-selling products:
   

3. On the toolbar, click on the Swap icon: 
   
   .This way it...

Building your first Dashboard

Creating a new Dashboard is as simple as creating a new Worksheet: choose one of the following ways (and find your new favorite one!):

Welcome to the Dashboard workplace. Do you see the three Worksheets you built on the left? I hope you understand now why renaming them was very important. You don't want too have many Worksheets named Sheet 1, Sheet 2, Sheet 3, and so on. I've been there and trust me, it's a nightmare!

Assembling the Dashboard

The first step when you build a Dashboard is to assemble your Worksheets:

1. Drag and drop the Profit by State Worksheet where Tableau invites you to do so.
2. Drag and drop the Sales and profit by Sub-Category Worksheet beneath the map. The gray area helps you to see where the Worksheets are going to be:

3. Drag and drop the Profit Evolution Worksheet on the right of Sales and profit by Sub-Category. Again, use the gray area to preview the location:

4. Double-click on Dashboard 1 at the bottom and rename your Dashboard Sales and profit...

Using Tableau for data exploration

Tableau can be used to answer business questions easily and visually. In the section, we'll explore our data to find insights. For this example, we use the Sample - Superstore dataset again. If you are starting here, please refer to the preceding Connect to data section. If you're continuing from the previous exercise, create a new Worksheet.

Let's start by building a scatterplot. It's a visualization that allows you to analyze two Measures at the same time:

1. Double-click on Profit then on Quantity. You should see one mark that shows the sum of sales and quantity:

Are there unprofitable sub-categories?

2. Drag and drop Sub-Category to Label. You should see now one mark per Sub-Category with, for some, their label:

Supplies, Bookcases, and Tables are unprofitable sub-categories. Now that you have answered your first question, you have two options: be happy because that's all you wanted to know, or go deeper. Let's try the second option.

3. Select the three nonprofitable...

Summary

This chapter was your first concrete introduction to Tableau. I hope you enjoyed it! In this guided tutorial, you learned how to connect to an Excel file and create three Worksheets using a bar chart, a line chart, and a map. Then you built a Dashboard and made it interactive. Finally, you explored the data to visually answer business questions.

The introduction is now over. In the following chapters, we'll focus on specific aspects of Tableau and enter in the details. Speaking of what's next, I invite you to continue your journey with the next chapter. In it, you'll learn everything you need to know to connect to any dataset, add joins or unions, pivot your data, and much more.