Broken Promises: How to Fix Dashboards

Jill Hutchinson

Technical Writer

Tableau

# T C 1 8

Good afternoon!

LOOK!

UP IN THE SKY!

Broken Promises: How to Fix Dashboards

Jill Hutchinson

Technical Writer

Tableau

# T C 1 8

This dashboard is broken.

Agenda

Intro

“This isn’t what I asked for.” (Audience & Purpose)

“The information is wrong or missing.” (Troubleshooting)

“It’s too confusing and ugly!” (Functionality & Beauty)

Wrap Up

@jubyleedata

1. Review the broken dashboard

2. List the problems

3. Make a plan

4. Dive in and start fixing!

5. Polish your dashboard

Steps to Superhero Success

Confirm purpose and audience

Verify server and data source permissions

Check data combinations

Check calculations and filters

Review the look and functionality

Performance

Best practices for dashboard performance

Wednesday | 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM | MCCNO - L1 - Great Hall B

Server and Data Sources

Graduating to Tableau Server | Send your users into the world

Thursday | 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM | MCCNO - L2 - 214

The Doctor is always in!

Covered Elsewhere

Super Superstore

Empress Midnight

Over Overlord

Captain Miracle Empire of the East

Legendary Burning Bird

West Coast Wilds

Lex Lethal

Secret South

Professor Z

Central Citadel

This isn't what I asked for.

Audience and Purpose

What questions are they trying to answer?

Audience and Purpose

Overlords looking to increase profitable products.

What questions are they trying to answer?

Audience and Purpose

Overlords looking to increase profitable products.

What questions are they trying to answer?

Who’s winning?

What states are unprofitable?

What specific products are failing?

How much of Sales are getting returned?

Audience and Purpose

Overlords looking to increase profitable products.

What questions are they trying to answer?

Who’s winning?

What states are unprofitable?

What specific products are failing?

How much of Sales are getting returned?

Click to get more info; deep dive

Audience and Purpose

Overlords looking to increase profitable products.

What questions are they trying to answer?

Who’s winning?

What states are unprofitable?

What specific products are failing?

How much of Sales are getting returned?

Click to get more info; deep dive

Over Overlord needs to know who is winning to know who to send to the fiery pit below the boardroom.

Audience and Purpose

Overlords looking to increase profitable products.

What questions are they trying to answer?

Who’s winning?

What states are unprofitable?

What specific products are failing?

How much of Sales are getting returned?

Click to get more info; deep dive

Over Overlord needs to know who is winning to know who to send to the fiery pit below the boardroom.

Determine bragging rights and problem products.

1. Review the broken dashboard

2. List the problems

3. Make a plan

a) Fix the big numbers and return sales

b) Make it interactive

c) Focus on PROFIT and PRODUCTS.

4. Dive in and start fixing!

5. Polish your dashboard

Steps to Superhero Success

The information is wrong.

This is just UGLY.

1. Review the broken dashboard

2. List the problems

3. Make a plan

a) Fix the big numbers and return sales

b) Make it interactive

c) Focus on PROFIT and PRODUCTS.

4. Dive in and start fixing!

5. Polish your dashboard

Steps to Superhero Success

1. Know your audience

2. Consider display size

3. Plan for fast load times

4. Leverage the sweet spot

5. Limit the number of views and colors

10 Best Practices

6. Add interactivity to encourage exploration

7. Format from largest to smallest

8. Leverage tooltips, the story within your story

9. Eliminate clutter

10. Test your dashboard

1. Review the broken dashboard

2. List the problems

3. Make a plan

4. Dive in and start fixing!

5. Polish your dashboard

Steps to Superhero Success

More Information

Appendix

Resources for each section of this talk

General Reference

Knowledge Base

White Papers

Support

Help

Broken Promises: How to Fix Broken Dashboards

S E S S I O N R E P E AT S

Wednesday | 3:30 – 4:30 pm | MCCNO - L2 - 225

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Thank you!

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follow me @jublyeedata

illustrations by @potter.charlie

Resources for Audience & Purpose

Telling Great Stories

Consider the Audience

Fit the Chart to the Story

Resources for Joins Troubleshooting

Using LODs to resolve duplicate data

Using Blends

Joins

Resources for Calcs Troubleshooting

Functions

Aggregations

Operators

Create or Edit a Calculated Field

Overview: Level of Detail Expressions

Order of Operations

Filter Your Data Carefully

Improve Performance with Context Filters

Resources for Filters and Actions Troubleshooting

Resources for Visual Best Practices

Best Practices for Effective Dashboards

Good to Great: Better Data Visualizations

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