Innovative Tableau

Chapter 95. 3 Innovative Ways to Use Set Actions: Tip 1

At the end of Part III, we covered several innovative ways to use parameter actions. Set actions work similarly, but instead of overwriting predefined user-generated values (i.e., parameters), they overwrite values in sets. They also have the added benefit of allowing your users to do a multiselect, leading to some even more flexible experiences. The next three chapters show you three innovative ways to use the Change Set Values dashboard action.

You’ve likely heard of sheet swapping in Tableau; a tactic that allows your users to choose what type of chart is shown on a view (Chapter 46). With the introduction of set actions in Tableau 2018.3, you can now also do what I’m calling button swapping.

Suppose that you are using images to filter marks on a view. You can now improve the user experience by changing the image for the selection so that it appears to be highlighted!

How to Do Button Swapping in Tableau

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to re-create the user experience from my visualization, BLOCKBUSTER. By default, each button’s background color is gray. When a button is clicked to filter the view, the background color is swapped for red to show what has been selected.

Note

Related: Practical Tableau, Chapter 47, “How to Create Icon-Based Navigation or Filters” (O’Reilly, 2018)

The foundation ...