The Tableau Workshop: A practical guide to the art of data visualization with Tableau

The Tableau Workshop

Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing

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Authors: Sumit Gupta, Sylvester Pinto, Shweta Sankhe-Savale, JC Gillet, and Kenneth Michael Cherven

Reviewers: Siddharth Pawar and Murari Ramuka

Development Editor: Aditi Hinge

Acquisitions Editor: Sneha Shinde

Production Editor: Salma Patel

Editorial Board: Megan Carlisle, Heather Gopsill, Bridget Kenningham, Manasa Kumar, Alex Mazonowicz, Monesh Mirpuri, Abhishek Rane, Brendan Rodrigues, Ankita Thakur, Nitesh Thakur, and Jonathan Wray

First published: April 2022

Production reference: 1250422

ISBN: 978-1-80020-765-3

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place, 35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction: Visual Analytics with Tableau

Introduction

The Importance of Visual Analytics

The Tableau Product Suite

Introduction to Tableau Desktop

Exercise 1.01: Connecting to a Data Source

Exercise 1.02: Creating a Comparison Chart Using Manual Drag and Drop

Exercise 1.03: Creating a Comparison Chart Using the Automated Show Me Button Method

Data Visualization Using Tableau Desktop

Saving and Sharing Your Work

Exercise 1.04: Saving Your Work as a Static Snapshot-PowerPoint Export

Exercise 1.05: Saving Your Work as a Tableau Interactive File–Tableau Packaged Workbook

Activity 1.01: Identifying and Creating the Appropriate Chart to Find Outliers in Your Data

Summary

2. Data Preparation: Using Tableau Desktop

Introduction

Connecting to a Data Source

Exercise 2.01: Connecting to an Excel File

Connecting to a Server Data Source

Various Joins in Tableau

Different Types of Joins

Exercise 2.02: Creating an Inner Join Dataset

Exercise 2.03: Creating a Left Join Dataset

Exercise 2.04: Creating a Right Join Dataset

Exercise 2.05: Creating a Combined Dataset Using Union

Data Transformation in the Data Pane

Data Interpreter

Renaming the Data Source

Live and Extract Connections

Exercise 2.06: Creating an Extract for Data

Extract Properties

The Data Storage field

The Filters field

The Aggregation Field

The Number of Rows Field

Which Connection Is Better – Live or Extract?

Filters

Exercise 2.07: Adding a Region Filter on the Orders Table

Data Grid Options

Custom SQL

Data Blending

Exercise 2.08: Creating a Data Blend Using the Orders and People Tables

Exercise 2.09: Visualizing Data Created from a Data Blend

Limitations of Data Blending

Activity 2.01: Identifying the Returned Orders

Activity 2.02: Preparing Data for Visualization

Summary

3. Data Preparation: Using Tableau Prep

Introduction

Prep Interface

Adding Data in the Flow

Exercise 3.01: Connecting to an Excel File

Exercise 3.02: Connecting with Multiple Data Sources

Data Source Profile

Exercise 3.03: Data Profile for the Orders_South Dataset

Data Preparation Using Clean, Groups, and Split

Additional Clean Steps

Cleaning Steps at the Column Level

Exercise 3.04: Applying a Filter in a Clean Step

Exercise 3.05: Cleaning a Column in the Workflow

Grouping Values

Exercise 3.06: Grouping Values into a Group

Splitting Values

Exercise 3.07: Splitting Columns

Aggregation, Pivot, Join, and Union

Aggregations

Exercise 3.08: Identifying High-Value Customers Based on Purchases

Pivoting Data

Exercise 3.09: Using a Pivot for Data

Joining and Union of Data

Exercise 3.10: Joining Two Data Sources

Union

Exercise 3.11: Union of Tables

Script Step

Flow and Data Exports

Exercise 3.12: Exporting Data

Activity 3.01: Finding the Month with the Highest Orders

Activity 3.02: Data Transformation

Summary

4. Data Exploration: Comparison and Composition

Introduction

Exploring Comparisons across Dimensional Items

Bar Chart

Exercise 4.01: Creating Bar Charts

Exploring Comparisons over Time

Exercise 4.02: Creating Bar Charts for Data over Time

Line Charts

Difference between Discrete Dates and Continuous Dates

Exercise 4.03: Creating Line Charts over Time

Exploring Comparison across Measures

Exercise 4.04: Creating a Bullet Chart

Bar-in-Bar Charts

Exercise 4.05: Creating a Bar-in-Bar Chart

Exploring Composition Snapshots – Stacked Bar Charts

Exercise 4.06: Creating a Stacked Bar Chart

Exploring Composition Snapshots – Pie Charts

Exercise 4.07: Creating a Pie Chart

Treemaps

Exercise 4.08: Creating Treemaps

Exploring Compositions for Trended Data

Area Charts

Exercise 4.09: Creating an Area Chart

Activity 4.01: Visualizing the Growth of Passenger Cars in Singapore

Summary

5. Data Exploration: Distributions and Relationships

Introduction

Exploring Distribution for a Single Measure

Creating a Histogram

Exercise 5.01: Creating a Histogram

Box and Whisker Plots

Exercise 5.02: Creating a Box and Whisker Plot without the Show Me Panel

Exercise 5.03: Box Plot Using the Show Me Panel

Relationship and Distribution with Multiple Measures

Distribution with Two Measures

Creating a Scatter Plot

Exercise 5.04: Creating a Scatter Plot

Scatter Plots with Trend Lines

Exercise 5.05: Trend Lines with Scatter Plots

Trend Lines and Types

Linear Trend Lines

Polynomial Trend Lines

Polynomial Degree of Freedom

Logarithmic Trend Lines

Exponential Trend Lines

Power Trend Lines

The Reliability of Trend Lines

R-Squared

P-value

Advanced Charts

Quadrant Charts

Reference Lines

Understanding Reference Lines

Exercise 5.06: Creating Quadrant Charts

Combination Charts – Dual axis Charts

Exercise 5.07: Creating Dual axis Charts

Activity 5.01: Creating Scatter Plots

Activity 5.02: Dual axis Chart with Asynchronous Axes

Summary

6. Data Exploration: Exploring Geographical Data

Introduction

Importing Spatial Data

Data File Types

ESRI Shapefiles

GeoJSON Files

KML Files

MapInfo Interchange Format

MapInfo Tables

TopoJSON Files

Downloading the Data Source from GitHub

Exercise 6.01: Downloading the Source Data

Importing Non-Spatial Geographic Data Sources

Exercise 6.02: Importing a Non-Spatial Data Source

Data Relationships

Exercise 6.03: Joining Two Data Sources

Managing Location Data

Assigning Geographic Roles

Editing Locations

Building Custom Geographies

Creating a New Geography Using an Existing Role

Creating a New Geography Using Groups

Exercise 6.04: Building Custom Geographies

Creating Maps in Tableau

Geocoding

Symbol Maps

Adding Data to Symbol Maps

Coloring a Symbol Map

Sizing a Symbol Map

Using Shapes in a Symbol Map

Adding Map Tooltips

Navigating Symbol Maps

Filtering Symbol Maps

Creating Groups and Sets from Symbol Map Data

Exercise 6.05: Building a Symbol Map

Choropleth (Filled) Maps

Coloring a Choropleth Map

Navigating a Choropleth Map

Filtering a Choropleth Map

Exercise 6.06: Building a Choropleth Map

Dual-Axis Maps

Exercise 6.07: Creating a Dual-Axis Map

Map Enhancements

Setting Map Options

Using Existing Layers

Adding Mapbox Background Maps

Exercise 6.08: Adding Mapbox Background Maps

Activity 6.01: Creating a Location Analysis Using Dual Axis and Background Maps

Summary

7. Data Analysis: Creating and Using Calculations

Introduction

Creating and Using Ad hoc / Edit in Shelf Calculations

Exercise 7.01: Creating an Ad Hoc Calculation to Highlight Loss-Making Sub-Categories

Creating and Using Different Types of Calculations

Creating and Using Different Types of Calculations: Numeric Calculations

Exercise 7.02: Creating a Numeric Calculation

Creating and Using Different Types of Calculations: Logic Statements

Exercise 7.03: Creating a Logic Calculation

Creating and Using Different Types of Calculations: String Calculations

Exercise 7.04: Creating a String Calculation

Creating and Using Different Types of Calculations: Date Calculations

Exercise 7.05: Creating a Date Calculation

Handling Null Values while Creating and Using Calculations

Creating Calculations across Data Sources

Activity 7.01: Calculating the Profit Margin

Activity 7.02: Calculating the Percentage Achievement with Respect to Budget Sales

Summary

8. Data Analysis: Creating and Using Table Calculations

Introduction

Quick Table Calculations

Running Total

Exercise 8.01: Creating a Running Total Calculation

Difference

Exercise 8.02: Creating a Difference Calculation

Percent of Total

Exercise 8.03: Creating a Percent of Total Calculation

Percent Difference

Exercise 8.04: Creating a Percent Difference Calculation

Percentile and Rank

Exercise 8.05: Creating Percentile and Rank Calculations

Moving Average

Exercise 8.06: Creating a Moving Average Calculation

Table Calculation Application: Addressing and Partitioning

Table (across)

Exercise 8.07: Creating a Table (across) Calculation

Table (down)

Exercise 8.08: Creating a Table (down) Calculation

Exercise 8.09: Creating Table (across then down) and Table (down then across) Calculations

Exercise 8.10: Creating a Pane (across) Calculation

Exercise 8.11: Pane (down) Calculation

Exercise 8.12: Creating a Pane-Level Calculation

Cell

Creating, Editing, and Removing Table Calculations

Creating a New Table Calculation

Exercise 8.13: Creating a Table Calculation Using the Calculation Editor

Removing a Table Calculation

Activity 8.01: Managing Hospital Bed Allocations

Activity 8.02: Planning for a Healthy Population

Summary

9. Data Analysis: Creating and Using Level of Details (LOD) Calculations

Introduction

Exercise 9.01: Creating a LOD Calculation

Types of LOD Calculations

FIXED

Exercise 9.02: Creating a FIXED LOD Calculation

INCLUDE

Exercise 9.03: Creating an INCLUDE LOD Calculation

EXCLUDE

Exercise 9.04: Creating an EXCLUDE LOD Calculation

Table-Scoped

LOD Calculations: Dimensions or Measures?

Aggregation and LOD Calculations

LOD Calculation Is Higher than the View LOD

LOD Calculation Is Finer than the View LOD

Nested LOD Calculations

Effects of Filters on LOD Calculations

Activity 9.01: Identifying the Top-Performing Sales Executives

Activity 9.02: Performing a Comparative Analysis

Summary

10. Dashboards and Storyboards

Introduction

The Who, What, and Why of the Dashboard

The Who: Audience

The What: Begin with the End in Mind

The Why: The Need for a Dashboard

Designing a Dashboard

The Basic Layout

Display Size

Positioning

Spacing

Colors

Size

Text

Exercise 10.01: Text Formatting – Workbook versus Worksheet

Dashboard Objects

Vertical Objects

Horizontal Objects

Text Objects

Image Objects

Web Page Objects

Blank Objects

Navigation Objects

Extension Object

Using Floating Objects

Exercise 10.02: KPIs and Metrics View

Exercise 10.03: Map and Parameter Worksheet Views

Exercise 10.04: Putting It All Together: Dashboarding

Creating Storyboards

Exercise 10.05: Creating a Simple Storyboard

Activity 10.01: Building a Complete Dashboard

Summary

11. Tableau Interactivity: Part 1

Introduction

Grouping Data

Exercise 11.01: Creating Groups

Hierarchies

Exercise 11.02: Creating Hierarchies

Filters: The Heart and Soul of Tableau

Data Source and Extract Filters

Exercise 11.03: Filtering Data Using Extract/Data Source Filters

Filters Using Views

Exercise 11.04: Creating Filters from the View

Creating Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Dimension Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Exercise 11.05: Dimension Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Measure Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Exercise 11.06: Measuring Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Date Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Exercise 11.07: Creating Date Filters Using the Filters Shelf

Quick Filters

Exercise 11.8: Creating Quick Filters

Applying Filters across Multiple Sheets/Multiple Data Sources or an Entire Data Source

Context Filters

Exercise 11.09: Creating and Using Context Filters

Sets

Static Sets

Exercise 11.10: Creating Static Sets

Dynamic Sets

Exercise 11.11: Creating Dynamic Sets

Adding Members to the Set

Exercise 11.12: Adding Members to the Set

Combined Sets

Exercise 11.13: How to Create Combined Sets

Parameters

Exercise 11.14: Standard Parameters

Dynamic Parameters

Exercise 11.15: Dynamic Parameters

Activity 11.01: Top N Countries Using Parameters, Sets, and Filters

Summary

Preface

About the Book

Learning Tableau has never been easier, thanks to this practical introduction to storytelling with data. The Tableau Workshop breaks down the analytical process into five steps: data preparation, data exploration, data analysis, interactivity, and distribution of dashboards. Each stage is addressed with a clear walk-through of the key tools and techniques you'll need, as well as engaging real-world examples, meaningful data, and practical exercises to give you valuable hands-on experience.

As you work through the book, you'll learn Tableau step by step, studying how to clean, shape, and combine data, as well as how to choose the most suitable charts for any given scenario. You'll load data from various sources and formats, perform data engineering to create new data that delivers deeper insights, and create interactive dashboards that engage end users.

All concepts are introduced with clear, simple explanations and demonstrated through realistic example scenarios. You'll simulate real-world data science projects with use cases such as traffic violations, urban populations, coffee store sales, and air travel delays.

By the end of this Tableau book, you'll have the skills and knowledge to confidently present analytical results and make data-driven decisions.

About the Authors

Sumit Gupta is an analytics professional with more than 7 years' experience spanning across marketing, sales, and product analytics. As a consultant and trainer, he has utilized Tableau to build better data-driven teams for his organization. Sumit specializes in translating vast amounts of data into easy-to-understand dashboards which provide actionable intelligence. He is a Tableau Certified Associate and enjoys training data enthusiasts to become better Tableau developers and certified Tableau associates. This book is one such effort to reach masses.

I would like to thank my family for being incredibly supportive through this book-writing journey, especially my super-mom. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I would also like to thank my friends (Piyush and Sheshnath, to name a few) and mentors/leaders/managers who have also pushed me to become better every day. Onwards and Upwards!

Sylvester Pinto has been using Tableau for almost a decade now for improving business performance for different industries. Sylvester has designed various business solutions using Tableau for different organizations leading to a huge impact to improve their businesses. He has a Tableau certification and as a consultant designs solutions for various organizations.

Shweta Sankhe-Savale is the co-founder and Head of Client Engagements at Syvylyze Analytics (pronounced civilize), a boutique business analytics firm specializing in visual analytics. Shweta is a Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate and a Tableau Accredited Trainer. Being one of the leading experts on Tableau in India, Shweta has translated her experience and expertise into successfully rendering analytics and data visualization services for numerous clients across a wide range of industry verticals. She has taken on numerous training and consulting assignments for customers across sectors such as BFSI, FMCG, retail, e-commerce, consulting and professional services, manufacturing, healthcare and pharma, ITeS, and more. She even had the privilege of working with renowned government and UN agencies. Combining her ability to break down complex concepts with her expertise on Tableau's visual analytics platforms, Shweta has successfully trained over 1,300 participants from 85+ companies.

Jean-Charles (JC) Gillet is a seasoned business analyst with over 7 years of experience with SQL at both a large-scale multinational company in the United Kingdom and a smaller firm in the United States, and 5 years of Tableau experience. He has been working with Tableau and SQL for multiple years to share his expertise with his colleagues, as well as delivering SQL training. A French national, JC holds a master's degree in executive engineering from Mines ParisTech and is a Tableau Desktop Certified Associate.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter (to whom he dedicates his work on this book) and playing team handball, having competed in national championships.

I'd like dedicate this work first and foremost to my wife and two children, who stand by my side every day, through thick and thin. But also to my parents, who taught me my core values, and my managers, especially my mentors and friends Robert and Miguel, who have meant so much to me.

Kenneth Michael Cherven is a Data Analyst and Visualizer based in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He has worked with Tableau for more than 15 years with a focus on making complex data easily understood through the of interactive dashboards and creative displays. Beyond his work in the automotive sector, Kenneth analyzes data and creates visualizations using open data sources from the baseball, government, music, and craft beer domains. Ken has previously published two titles for Packt – Network Graph Analysis and Visualization with Gephi and Mastering Gephi Network Visualization.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who wants to get started on visual analytics with Tableau. If you're new to Tableau, this Workshop will get you up and running. If you already have some experience in Tableau, this book will help fill in any gaps, consolidate your understanding, and give you extra practice with the key tools.

About the Chapters

Chapter 1, Introduction: Visual Analytics with Tableau, teaches you the basic skills needed to understand data and its visual elements for reporting and creating dashboards.

Chapter 2, Data Preparation: Using Tableau Desktop, covers the essential skills you need to create reports in Tableau, such as loading, joining, transforming, blending, and manipulating data.

Chapter 3, Data Preparation: Using Tableau Prep, covers Tableau Prep and how Prep helps in cleaning and joining disparate data sources. You will learn how to perform data manipulation methods such as pivots, grouping, and aggregations, and finally, how to export the transformed data into Tableau.

Chapter 4, Data Exploration: Comparison and Composition, expands on your Tableau knowledge. You will start creating charts in Tableau, including line, bar, and stacked area charts. You will also learn how to create trend reports.

Chapter 5, Data Exploration: Distributions and Relationships, covers reference lines and advanced chart types such as Dual Axis and Quadrant charts.

Chapter 6, Data Exploration: Exploring Geographical Data, teaches you how to explore geographical data to perform location-based analysis in Tableau.

Chapter 7, Data Analysis: Creating and Using Calculations, covers calculations, including numeric, string, and date calculations. You will also learn how to write logical statements in calculated fields.

Chapter 8, Data Analysis: Creating and Using Table Calculations, touches on table calculations and how they differ from calculated fields, and when to use table calculations versus calculated fields.

Chapter 9, Data Analysis: Creating and Using Level of Details (LOD) Calculations, covers LOD calculations, with which you will learn how to control the aggregation level in your view.

Chapter 10, Dashboards and Storyboards, covers the basics of using a blank canvas to build interactive dashboards, including adding branding elements, filters, and web pages. Finally, we will also cover storyboards and how they differ from dashboards.

Chapter 11, Tableau Interactivity: Part 1, dives deeper into Tableau Order of Operations, Filters, Sets, and Parameters, while reinforcing the other charting and dashboarding skills.

This is part one of a two-part topic, the latter half of which is available online.

Note

There are also three bonus chapters (Chapter 12, Tableau Interactivity: Part 2; Chapter 13, Distribution of Dashboards; and Chapter 14, Case Study) which you can find at https://packt.link/SHQ4H.

You can also find solutions for all activities in this Workshop online at https://packt.link/CTCxk.

Conventions

Code words in text form, database and collection names, file and folder names, shell commands, and user input use the following format: There are also other File, Edit, Flow, and Server menu options at the top. The purposes of the File and Edit options are self-explanatory. The Flow menu can be used to run the flow and the Server menu has the option to sign in and publish the flow on Tableau Server. 

Often at the beginning of chapters, key new terms will be introduced. In these cases, the following formatting will be used: Understanding aggregations is the most fundamental concept you need to keep in mind when working with Tableau. 

Minimum Hardware Requirements

For an optimal experience, we recommend the following hardware configuration:

Processor: Dual core or better

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Storage: 10 GB available space

Minimum Software Requirements

Unlike hardware requirements, software requirements can be challenging to list because Tableau releases new updates to their software every 3-6 months and there are new features added with these new releases. But considering the exercises/activities planned in this book, we expect the following to be required at minimum:

Tableau Desktop 2020.1 or above

Tableau Prep 2020.1 or above

This book was written and reviewed using Tableau versions 2020.1.x. Though new versions of Tableau are frequently released, the steps used for the exercises and activities in this book are unlikely to change with the version changes. Any known differences at the time of publication will be noted within the text as relevant.

Downloading the Book/Data Sources Bundle

GitHub link: https://packt.link/jqzD0

Download all the folders and data files from GitHub (as shown) or download individual chapter files separately as needed.

Figure 0.1: GitHub files

Setting Up Your Environment

Before you begin the book, you need to set up both Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep. In this section, you will see how to install Tableau Desktop. Once you have followed these steps and installed Tableau Desktop, you will also then need to follow the same steps to download Tableau Prep. The download links are as follows:

Tableau Desktop 2020.1: https://www.tableau.com/support/releases

Tableau Prep 2020.1: https://www.tableau.com/support/releases/prep

Installing Tableau on Your System

From https://www.tableau.com/support/releases/, click on 2020.1 to expand the list. Click on any of the 2020.1.XX links as follows:

Figure 0.2: Tableau downloads/release notes page

Click on 2020.1.20 and on the new page which was loaded. Next, either click on Download Tableau Desktop 2020.1.20 and Tableau will automatically detect your operating system, or else scroll down to the Download Files section and click on the appropriate download link for your operating system (Windows or Mac).

Figure 0.3: Tableau download 2020.1.20 page

Once you have downloaded the file, open your downloads folder, and double-click on the downloaded file. You will see the following screen if you are using a Mac (Windows will have a similar workflow):

Figure 0.4: Tableau Desktop installer: introduction

Follow the prompt by clicking on Continue and agreeing to the terms and conditions of the software license agreement:

Figure 0.5: Tableau software agreement prompt

It might take a minute or two to install the software and you may be asked to restart your system, depending on your computer's configuration.

Once the files are written, you should see the following success message. Click on Close to finish the installation:

Figure 0.6: Tableau installation complete

To verify whether the software was installed, if you are using Mac, press cmd + Space to open spotlight search and type in Tableau. You should see the following on your screen. Similarly, if you are using Windows, click on the Windows button and type Tableau to open the application.

Figure 0.7: Searching Tableau in spotlight search

You can follow the same steps to install Tableau Prep by downloading the software from the download link above. When you load either Tableau Desktop or Tableau Prep for the first time, you might be required to register the software and enter the license key. Depending on your situation, either your organization might be able to provide the license keys, or you can start a 14-day trial to explore the software. Finally, if you are a student or teacher, Tableau offers free 1-year licenses; to learn more, visit https://www.tableau.com/academic/students.

Get in Touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have any questions about this book, please mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you could report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and complete the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, we would be grateful if you could provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

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Let us know what you think by leaving a detailed, impartial review on Amazon. We appreciate all feedback – it helps us continue to make great products and help aspiring developers build their skills. Please spare a few minutes to give your thoughts – it makes a big difference to us. You can leave a review by clicking the following link: https://packt.link/r/1800207654.

1. Introduction: Visual Analytics with Tableau

Overview

In this chapter, you will learn about Visual Analytics and why it is important to visualize your data. You will connect to data using Tableau Desktop and familiarize yourself with the Tableau workspace. By the end of this chapter, you will be well acquainted with the Tableau interface and some of the fundamental important concepts that will help you get started with Tableau. The topics that are covered in this chapter will mark the start of your Tableau journey.

Introduction

At a very broad level, the whole data analytics process can be broken down into the following steps: data preparation, data exploration, data analysis, and distribution. This process typically starts with a question or a goal, which is followed by finding and getting the relevant data. Once the relevant data is available, you then need to prepare this data for your exploration and analysis stage. You might have to clean and restructure the data to get it in the right form, maybe combine it with some additional datasets, or enhance the data by creating some calculations. This stage is referred to as the data preparation stage. After this comes the data exploration stage. It is at this stage that you try to see the composition and distribution of your data, compare data, and identify relationships if any exist. This step gives an idea of what kind of analysis can be done with the given dataset.

Typically, people like to explore the data by looking at it in its raw form (that is, at the data preparation stage); however, a quick and easy way to explore the data is to visualize it. Visualizing the data can reveal patterns that were difficult to recognize in the raw data.

The data exploration stage is followed by the data analysis stage, in which you analyze your data and develop insights that can be shared with others. These insights, when visualized, will enable easier interpretation of data, which in turn leads to better decision making. In very simplistic terms, the process of exploring and analyzing the data by visualizing it as charts and graphs is called visual analytics. As mentioned earlier, the idea behind visualizing your data is to enable faster decision making. Finally, the last step in the data analytics cycle is the distribution stage, wherein you share your work with other stakeholders who can consume this information and act upon it.

In this chapter, we will discuss all these topics in detail, starting with a further exploration of the value of the titular process.

The Importance of Visual Analytics

As mentioned earlier, Visual Analytics can be defined as the process of exploring and analyzing data by visualizing it as charts and graphs. This enables end users to quickly consume the information and, in turn, empowers them to make quicker and better decisions.

In this section, you will learn why data visualization is a better tool for evaluation than looking at large volumes of data in numeric format.

All of us have at some point heard the expression A picture is worth a thousand words. Indeed, it has been found that humans are great at identifying and recognizing patterns and trends in data when consumed as visuals as opposed to large volumes of data in tabular or spreadsheet formats.

To understand the importance and the power of data visualization/visual analytics, let's look at one of the classic examples: Anscombe's Quartet. Anscombe's quartet is comprised of four distinct datasets with nearly identical statistical properties, yet completely different distributions and visualizations.

Note

This was developed in 1973 by an English statistician named Francis John (Frank) Anscombe, after whom it was named.

Let's take a deeper look at these datasets.

Figure 1.1: A screenshot showing the datasets used in Anscombe's quartet

As you can see in the preceding figure, each dataset consists of 11 X and Y points. Now, if you were to analyze these datasets using typical descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and correlation between X and Y, you would see that the output is identical.

Figure 1.2: A screenshot showing descriptive statistics of the Anscombe's quartet data

Looking at the preceding figure, you can see the following:

The mean of X for each dataset is 9 (exact accuracy).

The standard deviation for X for each dataset is 3.32 (exact accuracy).

The mean of Y for each dataset is 7.50 (accurate up to two decimals).

The standard deviation for Y for each dataset is 2.03 (accurate up to two decimals).

The correlation between X and Y for each dataset is 0.816 (accurate up to three decimals).

So, by looking at the above statistical inferences, you would assume that these datasets are identical until you decide to visualize each of them, the results of which are displayed below.

The images show how these datasets appear when visualized as graphs. Now, let's compare each of these visualizations side by side so that you can see how different each of these datasets really are.

Figure 1.3: A screenshot showing a graphical representation of all four datasets of Anscombe's quartet

The preceding example highlights how data visualization can help uncover patterns in data that it was not possible to see by simply looking at the numbers and/or just analyzing the data statistically. This is exactly why Francis Anscombe created his quartet. He wanted to counter the argument that numerical calculations are exact, but graphs are rough, which, back then, was a quite common impression among statisticians.

Next, take a look at one more example of how visualizing data helps us find quick insights. Refer to the following figure:

Figure 1.4: A screenshot of a grid view showing the marketing expense and profitability for products across markets

In the preceding figure, you can see a grid view of fields such as Product Type, Product, Market, Marketing, and Profit. In the data that you have used, Marketing is the money that is spent on any marketing efforts to promote products, and Profit is the profit generated after those marketing efforts. Further, these values are broken down by dimensions such as Product Type, Product, and Market. The idea is to evaluate how each product is doing in terms of Marketing and Profit across different markets.

Now, displaying this information in a grid format, as shown above, results in 84 numbers being shown in the view, and doing any kind of comparison across these 84 numbers is going to be very difficult. So, imagine you want to find out whether there are any products in any specific markets where losses are made even after spending significant money on the marketing efforts. Then you will end up comparing these numbers horizontally as well as vertically, which, honestly, is a bit tedious. However, let's see whether visualizing this data makes any difference. Refer to the following figure:

Figure 1.5: A bar chart comparing the marketing expense and profitability for products

In the preceding figure, you can see that the length of the bar is the money spent on Marketing, whereas the color of the bar represents the Profit value. So basically, the longer the bar, the more money was spent on marketing; the darker the shade of blue, the more profitable the product; and the darker the shade of orange, the greater the loss accrued.

Looking back at that figure, note that the longest bar is Caffe Mocha in the East market. This means that Caffe Mocha has the highest marketing spending, but because the color of that bar is orange, you also know that it is accruing a loss.

This is another example that demonstrates the power of data visualization.

Now that you have understood what visual analytics is and why it is important, let's look at some data visualization tools in the next section.

The Tableau Product Suite

There are a lot of tools available on the market offering various features and functionalities that you can use to visualize your data. When it comes to business analytics and data visualization, Tableau is one of the leading tools in this space because of its ease of use and drag and drop functionality, which makes it easier even for a business user to start making sense of their data. Tableau has different tools for different purposes, available in the Tableau product suite, which we'll explore in this section.

The entire suite can be divided into three parts: data preparation, data visualization, and consumption or distribution. Refer to the following figure:

Figure 1.6: A screenshot showing the Tableau product suite

As shown in the preceding figure, you have Tableau Prep in the Data