Innovative Tableau

Chapter 39. How to Create Performance Indicator Titles with Comparison Score

One of the primary elements that you’ll find on almost every high-level corporate dashboard that I ever create is a callout that conveys the current performance of the KPI by some comparison point (i.e., goal, prior period). In Chapter 38, we explored how to make performance indicator titles in Tableau, but I usually take these a step further by displaying the KPI’s performance and coloring it based on a 100-point index or percent change. I like this element for several reasons:

• It provides the exact numbers for my stakeholders that are accustomed to viewing reports as raw data
• It forces them to benefit from the preattentive attribute of color
• It is explanatory and helps the user decide whether they should invest further time for investigation

This chapter shows you two design options for creating a current versus comparison index callout in Tableau.

How to Create a Current Versus Comparison Index Callout in Tableau

I’ve been using the first approach to creating a current versus comparison index for years, so let’s begin there. The element consists of three rows, each of which will require their own calculated field:

• The current period performance with a mark type of Text

• The goal or prior period performance with a mark type of Text

• The current versus comparison index with a mark type of Square

For this scenario, let’s imagine the current performance is sales from the Sample – Superstore dataset ...