Innovative Tableau

Chapter 93. 3 Innovative Ways to Use Transparent Sheets: Tip 2

Add Context to Line Graphs by Adding a Timeline of Key Events

In Chapter 90, I share how to make a timeline in Tableau even when events/marks overlap. One of my favorite applications of a timeline chart is to show my audience when key events occurred in the business that might be affecting performance. As an analyst, I often see large peaks and valleys on trend lines, but they’re rarely accompanied by direct context on what might have caused the changes.

With the ability to make worksheet backgrounds transparent, we can now add a timeline directly to a line graph or area chart to provide that meaningful context. Again, this provides a professional design while also serving a practical purpose.

Suppose that we have added this trend to our dashboard:

By adding annotations, this trend has already been improved. We see when traffic peaked, which is an alternative way to display the y-axis range, and we also see one bit of marketing context. Even though this chart is helpful, let’s make it even better by adding a timeline of key events on top of the trend. After all, this chart represents our critical Tableau Conference and Black Friday marketing push, so it makes sense to let our stakeholders know which marketing tactics were in play during this period.

Here’s how the chart looks after we add the jittered timeline view ...