Tableau: Next Steps

Tableau is a powerful data visualization tool. With it, you can take a simple chart and filters and turn them into a dynamic powerful dashboard—or take your huge amounts of data and provide the resources that will allow end users to easily digest all of it.

Join expert Christopher Gardner to find out how to put Tableau tools, such as calculations, parameters, and dashboards, to work. You’ll learn how to use Tableau methods along with simple graphic design and user interface techniques to make your dashboards and charts useful and engaging, grant your end users control while keeping them from getting lost in the weeds, and make your layouts simple to navigate and understand.

By the end of this course, you’ll understand:

• How to take a simple Tableau chart to the next level with calculations and parameters that will make your visualizations more interactive and dynamic
• How to utilize built-in fields (e.g., what Measure Names and Measure Values do and how to count records without a calculation)
• How to calculate ratios and other common calculations without falling into the pitfalls of incorrect aggregation
• How to take a collection of visualizations and combine them into a cohesive, dynamic dashboard that’s both intuitive and powerful
• Layout, design, and visualization best practices to make your dashboard functional and appealing

And you’ll be able to:

• Utilize parameters (values not in the data sources) to grant end users the ability to select the chart and views they desire
• Develop an interactive, functional dashboard for end users

• You’re an analyst or decision maker in your organization.
• You work with data on a regular basis and use this data to help facilitate decision making (or are hoping to do so in the future).
• You want to become a data advocate for your organization by facilitating information access through data visualization.
• You’re familiar with Tableau basics and want to take your skills to the next level.

Prerequisites

• Familiarity with basic database principles, such as tables and fields
• A basic understanding of coding logic, such as IF-THEN and CASE WHEN
• Experience with Tableau (data connections, chart building, filters, sorts, etc.)

Recommended preparation:

• Download and install Tableau Desktop (A free trial version is fine, as long as the trial is active during the class.)
• Download the course dataset in Excel format (.xlsx) on your desktop
• Take Tableau: First Steps (live online training with Christopher Gardner)

Recommended follow-up:

• Read Practical Tableau (book)
• Read Innovative Tableau (book)
• Read Visual Analytics with Tableau (book)
• Read Communicating Data with Tableau (book)