Tableau Dashboard: A Comprehensive Guide to Visualizing Data Effectively

One of the most significant aspects of data analysis is Data visualization. It has always been critical to convey information in a way that is both intelligible and pleasant to the eye. One of the skills that Data Scientists must acquire in order to connect more effectively with end-users is Data Visualization. Tableau is the first term that springs to mind when you think about Data Visualization.  I’m presuming you’ve heard of Tableau’s benefits and how it works, which is why you’ve come here to read this blog on Tableau Dashboards. So without any further delay, let’s get started with what are Tableau Dashboards. With this Tableau Dashboard blog, I hope you will enjoy learning about making Tableau Dashboards for data visualizations.

The following topics will be covered in this Tableau Dashboard blog:

What is a Tableau Dashboard?
How to create a Tableau Dashboard?
Tableau Dashboard Examples

What is Tableau Dashboard?

A dashboard is a centralized presentation of many spreadsheets and related data in one location. It’s used to compare and track a variety of data at the same time. The many data views are all presented at the same time. Dashboards are tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet that are often updated with the most recent data from the data source. You may add views from any worksheet in the workbook to a dashboard, as well as a variety of supporting objects including text areas, web pages, and photos. Each view you add to the dashboard is linked to the worksheet it belongs to. As a result, if you change the worksheet, the dashboard is updated, and if you change the dashboard’s view, the worksheet is updated.

In today’s market, Tableau is a commonly utilized Business Intelligence solution. Its appeal stems from its capacity to handle large amounts of data while still being very easy to deploy, understand, and utilize. Tableau takes raw data and turns it into a visual masterpiece that helps organizations make data-driven choices. Tableau Dashboards offer an easy interface with self-explanatory wizards that make it simple for non-technical users to build visualizations. To undertake analysis, just drag and drop dimensions and charts onto the drawing space.

Tableau Dashboards are a collection of distinct views or visualizations, each of which displays a different type of data. It provides customers with a comprehensive picture of all data on a single screen. It’s as simple as dragging views from the sheets section to the visualization area to create dashboards.

Creating or building a dashboard entails more than just using Tableau’s visualization tools. A dashboard should provide the most relevant facts that allows a user to consume information quickly. Tableau has a number of interaction features, like as tooltips and filters, that may be used without cluttering the viewable space, resulting in a pleasant dashboard experience.

For a detailed tutorial on tableau watch this video:

How to Create a Tableau Dashboard?

Before starting let’s have a quick understanding of different options available on navigation in Tableau:

Dashboard/Layout

By default, you’ll be working on the Tableau Dashboard tab, which lets you personalise almost every aspect of the dashboard. The layout tab allows you to change the proportions and positioning of individual dashboard components. All sizes in the Layout tab are in pixels.

Device Preview

The Device Preview option allows you to see how the dashboard will appear on various devices, and you can even store alternate versions of the dashboard so that it appears differently depending on the device.

Size

This is where you may set the height and width of the dashboard in pixels. You may choose from a variety of standard sizes or specify a bespoke size. If you choose Automatic, the dashboard will automatically modify the various components to accommodate all of the available space on the screen it’s being presented on. On the surface, this choice looks to be a good match, but keep in mind that it isn’t truly “responsive,” and the display can be inconsistent.

Sheets

Here you’ll find a list of individual worksheets in your workbook that you may upload to the dashboard. The sample shown above was created using three pages from the workbook: Map, Trends, and Bar Chart. It’s a good idea to give the worksheets meaningful names so they’re simple to discover, but you can also see a thumbnail preview by hovering over the name in the left menu.

Objects

Horizontal: Adds a horizontal layout container to which other items can be added.
Vertical: Adds a vertical layout container to which other items can be added.
Text: This command starts a mini word processor where you can type and format whatever text you choose.
Image: Adds a picture from your computer to the dashboard.
Web Page: Adds a web page link to the dashboard (requires an Internet connection to display the web page).
Blank: Fills the dashboard with blank space, which might be handy when dashboard items in a tiled layout are too close together.

Tiled

When dashboard elements are tiled, they take up the entirety of each tile’s available area. While dashboard objects are floating, you may customise their exact size and placement. Each of these layouts has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, and the one you select is mostly influenced by your specific use case. Most Tableau users enjoy the automated scaling that comes with a tiled layout; we prefer the predictability and precision that comes with floating elements.

Steps to Create a Dashboard

Here we will discuss the step-by-step process to create a dashboard on Tableau

1. New Dashboard
Click on Dashboard option on the Menu bar
Select a New Dashboard
Change name of the Dashboard according to requirement

2. Add Sheets to the Dashboard

From the left panel, drag sheets on the Dashboard
Select the sheet and add your data to start creating visualizations

3. Add another Sheet to your Dashboard

Drag the second sheet to your dashboard
You can swap sheet between sheets with the swap button
You can add multiple sheets as per your requirement

4. Customization with Interactive additions

You can add Filters, Slicers, Graphs, Shapes, Pie charts and different options to customize your dashboard.
You can add texts to provide more information on your customization and headers.
Webpage links and images can also be added from more information on your dashboard

View your Dashboard

After you are doing with customizing your dashboard, you can view it in full screen by pressing F7 as shortcut or you can view it in Presentation Mode. Here you can see how your dashboard looks finally to the viewers.

How Tableau dashboards work

Dashboards are graphical user interfaces that provide a consolidated view of important information and data from various sources. They are designed to visually represent complex data sets in a simplified and easy-to-understand manner. Dashboards are commonly used in business intelligence, data analytics, and monitoring systems to track key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and trends.

The underlying mechanism of dashboards involves the following key elements:

1. Data Sources: Dashboards gather data from multiple sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, APIs, and real-time data streams. These sources provide the raw data required to populate the dashboard.
2. Data Extraction and Transformation: The dashboard system extracts data from the various sources and applies necessary transformations to ensure its compatibility and consistency. This may involve cleaning, aggregating, or summarizing the data to make it more suitable for visualization.
3. Data Visualization: Once the data is extracted and transformed, it is presented in a visual format. Dashboards utilize charts, graphs, tables, maps, and other visual elements to represent the data. Visualizations help users quickly grasp the key insights and trends hidden within the data.
4. Interactivity: Dashboards often allow users to interact with the visualizations. Users can select specific data ranges, apply filters, drill down into details, or change the parameters to explore the data further. This interactivity enables users to gain deeper insights and answer specific questions.
5. Real-Time Updates: Depending on the requirements, dashboards can provide real-time or near real-time updates. They can automatically refresh the data at regular intervals or continuously stream live data, ensuring that users have access to the most up-to-date information.
6. Customization and Personalization: Dashboards are customizable to meet specific needs. Users can choose the visualizations they prefer, rearrange the layout, and configure settings based on their requirements. Personalization options allow users to tailor the dashboard to their individual preferences and focus on the metrics that matter most to them.
7. Accessibility and Sharing: Dashboards are typically web-based or accessible through specialized software applications. This enables users to access and view dashboards from different devices and locations. Dashboards can also be shared with others, either by exporting them as static reports or by granting access to specific users or groups.

Overall, dashboards simplify complex data analysis and enable users to monitor, understand, and act upon important information effectively. By providing a centralized view of key metrics, they facilitate data-driven decision-making and enhance organizational performance.

Tableau Dashboard Examples

• Sales Pipeline Dashboard Use this dashboard to understand the health and status of your pipeline. Being able to slice the data and view pipeline by opportunity stages, KPIs, size buckets, timeline, and sales representative, means that you can spot opportunities that require you to pivot quickly, if necessary. Seeing a complete and accurate picture of the status of your sales pipeline means that you evaluate where your leads are coming from and take action early to help teams reach quota.

Source Link

• Healthcare Dashboard In this visualization (viz) by Bridget Cogley, you may look at patient demographics and trends by department. This visualization makes use of Tableau’s clustering tool to glean insights from hospital data, highlighting common short-stay patients vs long-stay patients.

Source Link

This blog should have given you a good idea of “What is Tableau Dashboard?” Do you still want to learn more? Don’t worry, the Tableau Tutorial will help you better comprehend the tool. For that we have videos on YouTube which you can go through for better hands-on understanding of Tableau. If you’re interested in becoming Tableau certified, click the link below to learn more about Edureka’s Tableau Training. You may also obtain more free Edureka material by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

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