Data Visualizations Final Exam

What are KPIs?

Key Performance Indicators = A metric used to measure achievement to a critical success factor (CSF) and help manage a process, service or activity (balance of effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness)

How to create a KPI?

Step 1: Create a Calculated Field named 1

Step 2: Drag Calculated Field 1 to Rows twice

Step 3: On both pills change to minimum

Step 4: Change both marks to Pie for both charts

Step 5: On 2nd marks card put category on the color tile and profit on angle tile

Step 6: Change 3rd marks card color to white and change to dual axis

Step 7: Reduce the size of the 3rd marks card so a ring appears

Step 8: Drag region to the column center

Step 9: Duplicate the region pill and add it to the right of the previous region pill

Step 10: Sort the first region descending

Why should you not use a pie chart?

People are much better at comparing lengths and heights, as you would see in a bar or line chart, than they are at comparing areas within a pie

What are 'acceptable' uses of pie charts when making DVs?

1. If you want your audience to have a general sense of the part-to-whole relationship in your data and comparing the precise sizes of the slices is less important.

2. To convey that one segment of the total is relatively small or large.

3. There are not too many categories

Pie chart policies (if you have to make them)

- make sure the pieces add to 100%

- only use a few categories

- start at noon and move clockwise

- largest to smallest pieces

- add labels for %

- No 3D pies

- Keep it Simple

What is typography?

The art of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed

Typeface

Describes the way a collection of characters or letters look and feels as a whole

- A family

- Cannot be copyrighted

Font

Describes the physical attributes of the letters and characters, each variation of a typeface is a font

- Can be copyrighted

Serif Fonts

Fonts that have a tail, or stroke, at the end of some characters.

EX: Times New Roman

Sans-Serif Fonts

Do not have tails and are commonly used in headlines

EX: Arial

Examples of Serif Fonts

Times New Roman, Garamond, Baskerville, Georgia, and Courier New.

Examples of Sans-Serif Fonts

Arial, Helvetica, Proxima Nova, Futura, and Calibri.

What is best practice for use of fonts in Tableau?

1. Limit the number of fonts to 2 or 3

2. Use fonts in the same family (typeface)

3. Mix serif with sans serif (same typeface if possible)

4. Establish a visual hierarchy

5. Consider context

Serif fonts (Times New Roman personality)

Stable, pratical, matuer

Script fonts (personality)

feminine

Modern Fonts (personality)

assertive, coarse

Sans-serif (Arial personality)

neutral (not positive or negative)

Best font for numbers?

Sans-Serif Fonts- Less visual noise- Communicate without calling attention to the font

In general, how are maps created in Tableau?

Pull longitude and latitude data from the database

How are the marks placed in the map when geo-coded variables are selected?

They are placed in the center of the location at the mean of the longitude and latitude

What is a spider map?

A map which shows paths between location points

What is a choropleth map?

a map that uses differences in shading, coloring, or the placing of symbols within predefined areas to indicate the average values of a property or quantity in those areas.

How is a choropleth map created?

Change the marks card to a map and put a QUANTITATIVE variable on the color tile.

How is animation created in Tableau?

Put date on pages card

What is a parameter?

A characteristics that can help in defining or classifying a particular system. In Tableau, it is an option to select

What is the purpose of a parameter?

- Increase the interactivity and flexibility of a visual

--Similar to filters but it has more applications

- Powerful function to transfer control of the visual to the viewer

- Improves retention of insights

What is the purpose of a calculated field related to parameters?

The calculated field allows you to change the variable using the parameter.

What are tooltips and what is their purpose?

Tooltips are details that appear when you rest the pointer over one or more marks in the view.

Their purpose is to provide further information and context to users about certain data points and they also offer convenient tools to quickly filter or remove a selection.

Why should tooltips be edited?

Base tooltips are not as useful or as visually appealing

How do users interpret the area vs the height of a mark or image?

Most people analyze the area of an object rather than the height, so bar charts with pictures as the bars can be misleading.

What is the lie factor?

size of effect shown in graphic / size of effect in data

the lie factor score should be between .95 and 1.05

What is the purpose or objective of the Tableau Stories?

- Tableau Stories show the interconnectedness of multiple visuals.

- Stories lead the end-user through discoveries you made while you were analyzing the data.

What are Tableau Stories comprised of?

- Individuals sheets or views

- Each sheet is called a STORY POINT

Common Error in Tableau Stories?

Too many story points for viewers

7 Types of Tableau Stories

1. Change Over Time

2. Drill Down

3. Zoom Out

4. Contrast

5. Intersections

6. Factors

7. Outliers

Change Over Time Tableau Story

Uses a chronology to show a trend

Drill Down Tableau Story

Examines a context or category in detail

Zoom Out Tableau Story

Describes something related to a bigger picture

Contrast Tableau Story

Shows how two or more subjects differ

Intersections Tableau Story

- Highlights important shifts/crossovers

- Look at when one trend/ value surpasses the other

Factors Tableau Story

Divides a subject into different categories

Outliers Tableau Story

Shows anomalies

What is a dashboard?

- A collection of several visuals in one view

-- Multiple worksheets are presented simultaneously

-- No need to navigate between multiple worksheets

What is the purpose or objective of DBs?

Dashboards enable the simultaneous comparison of a variety of data

Benefits of Dashboards

- INTERACTIVITY

-- Multiple views in a DB may be tied together for interactivity.

-- Interactivity among the views in the DB allows end users to answer multiple questions ad hoc.

- VARIETY

--Dashboards can include visuals, text, images and web pages

-- DBs may combine different types of charts, graphs and tables to deliver a multifaceted message

-- There is a time or space limitation to presenting views individually

What are the 3 DB concepts?

- Visceral

- Behavioral

- Reflective

Visceral Concept (Dashboards)

- Overall appeal of the DB design

- How appealing is the DB?

Behavioral Concept (Dashboards)

Is the DB useful?

•Affordances (interactivity)

•Signifiers (directions)

Reflective Concept (Dashboards)

- Is it easy/confusing to use the DB?

- How successful was I in using the DB?

Dashboard Affordance

- Things the dashboard can DO

EX: Filter, Hover over map to change what information is show

Dashboard Signifier

- (symbols or instructions)

indicators that tell the user how to perform the task.

EX: "Click timeline to filter map"

Dashboard Flow

- Logical flow

- Logical layout

- Distinct groupings create FLOW

--Having patterns helps interpretation

- Upper Left is the most viewed spot of the dashboard

Dashboard Orientation

Changing the orientation of the graph can have a visceral effect on users of the graph (Iraq's bloody war change of orientation example)

How does the Dashboard differ from the Tableau Story?

The dashboard has all the views in one view whereas the story is a sequence of views in a row.

5 Types of Dashboards

1.Explanatory dashboard

2.Exploratory dashboard

3.Explanatory/Exploratory dashboard (mixture)

4.Storytelling dashboard

5.Infographics

Explanatory dashboard

Displays facts to educate end user - more static, less interactive.

Exploratory dashboard

Enables end users to answer questions interactively.

Storytelling dashboard

Conveys a series of events

Infographics

Series of facts in one tall column

Hick's Law

when the # of alternatives increases, the more time required to make a decision.