Tableau Strategies

Preface

If you’ve picked up this book, chances are we already have something in common. What is it, you may ask? It’s that we love data—working with it, analyzing it, and presenting it. The Tableau portfolio of products, most specifically Tableau Desktop, provides us data enthusiasts the opportunity to get hands-on with our data, interrogate it, and create beautiful charts and outputs.

Tableau as a visualization tool is unique. It takes an analysis-first approach by offering an open canvas where creators can start from scratch and build any chart they imagine. It also provides a fantastic toolkit to create both interactive dashboards and pixel-perfect data displays.

But since we’re all professionals here, we know the truth: it takes more than just connecting a dataset to Tableau to derive insight and value. That’s where this book comes in. Throughout these pages, you’ll find an exhaustive collection of use cases and scenarios designed to provide both contextual commentary and technical know-how. Whether you’re a data beginner (we’ve got you covered) or a seasoned Tableau professional, the chapters in this book are designed to guide you through how and why charts are made.

And one of the most exciting parts about this book? It cultivates examples from many industries and includes many types of data. We all know that both the type of data and the contents of a dataset define the direction of analysis, but often in your day job, you’re stuck with just one type. Here, you’ll be able ...