five things i wish i knew the first day i used tableau

Five Things I Wish I Knew theFirst Day I Used Tableau

Presented by:Ryan SleeperDirector, Data VisualizationEvolytics

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What to Expect

• Introduction

• Purpose

• Audience

• Five Things

• Q&A

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Ryan SleeperDirector, Data VisualizationEvolytics

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My Learning Curve

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If I had only known…

1. Tableau Licenses

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Tableau Licenses

Which Tableau license is best for me?(and why is this so confusing?!)

Your choice depends on:(1) Connectivity(2) Distribution(3) Automation

(4) Security

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Tableau Public

Connectivity• TDE, Access, Excel, Text File

Distribution• Cloud

Automation• Not available

Security• None – your data is accessible by anyone on the Internet

Price: Free

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Tableau Public

Best for• Journalists• Sharing publicly available data (and Tableau know-how) with

the world• Practicing Tableau for free• Trying the software

Tableau Desktop: Personal

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Connectivity• TDE, Access, Excel, Text File

Distribution• Offline or Tableau Public

Automation• Not available

Security• As good as your personal computer / server’s security

Price: $1000 for year one; $200 for year two+

Tableau Desktop: Personal

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Best for• Those that only need to connect to flat data files• Those that need the most cost-effective version that will keep

their data private

Tableau Desktop: Professional

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Connectivity• All possible connections in Tableau

Distribution• Offline, Tableau Server, or Tableau Public (all possible

distribution options in Tableau)

Automation• Not available

Security• As good as your personal computer / server’s security

Price: $2000 for year one; $400 for year two+

Tableau Desktop: Professional

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Best for• Those that need to connect to data in databases• Those that need the capability to publish to Tableau Server

Tableau Server (Interactor)

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Connectivity• Workbooks that have been published to Tableau Server and

that you have been granted access to

Distribution• Tableau Server (cloud)

Automation• Available on schedules or intervals

Security• As good as your hosting provider’s

Price: $1000 for year one; $200 for year two+; 10 license minimum

Tableau Server (Interactor)

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Best for• Those that need to access / distribute workbooks in the cloud• Those that want to automate workbook refreshes• Those that want to edit workbooks in the cloud (limited

capability)

2. Shaping Data

Shaping Data

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Sweet Excel Table

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total

Sales $ $ $ $ $$$

Profit $ $ $ $ $$$

Orders # # # # ###

Common Data Layout

Shaping Data

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Google: “Preparing Excel Files for Analysis”

Quarter Sales Profit Orders

Q1 $ $ #

Q2 $ $ #

Q3 $ $ #

Q4 $ $ #

Ideal Data Layout

Shaping Data

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Date Quarter Sales Profit Orders

1/1/2014 Q1 $ $ #

4/1/2014 Q2 $ $ #

7/1/2014 Q3 $ $ #

10/1/2014 Q4 $ $ #

Ideal Data Layout

Google: “Preparing Excel Files for Analysis”

3. Dimension vs. Measure

Dimension vs. Measure

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Measure: A measure is a field that is a dependent variable; that is, its value is a function of one or more dimensions.

Tableau treats any field containing numeric (quantitative) information as a measure.

Sales

Source: Tableau Knowledge Base

Dimension vs. Measure

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Dimension: A dimension is a field that can be considered an independent variable.

By default, Tableau treats any field containing qualitative, categorical information as a dimension.

Sales

Source: Tableau Knowledge Base

4. Discrete vs. Continuous

Discrete vs. Continuous

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Discrete vs. Continuous

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Discrete draws headers.

Continuous draws axes.

Discrete vs. Continuous

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Sales by Month: Discrete

Discrete vs. Continuous

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Sales by Month: Continuous

5. Corporate Chart Types

Sparklines

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Small Multiples

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Bullet Graphs

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Thank You and Q&A

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Slides:Evolytics.com/5Things

Resources:Evolytics.com/Tableau201Google: “Tableau 201”

Ryan Sleeper@OSMGuyrsleeper@evolytics.com