Dashboard Best Practices(Tooltips Edition)

ATUG - March 22, 2012

by: Andy PiperMgr. Supply Chain DevelopmentNorfolk Southern Corporation

Takeaways

SESSION WILL COVER:• How to add conditional formatting to tooltips

• How to add hyperlinks to tooltips

• How to use image files as custom shapes

• How to configure hover help

• How we are keeping track of viz versioning

Hands On

• Fire up Tableau, this is a hands on session

• Don’t have a laptop, – Get with someone who does, or– Direct your attention to the front

• Using 7.01, but all material presented (unless indicated otherwise) is possible in 6.x

Hands On• Connect to Coffee Chain

• Create a bar chart using Product Type and Sales

• Tooltip rather lifeless

• 7.x has Keep Only and Exclude options

Conditional Formatting

TITLE FIELD CREATION• Create Calculated field from Product Type

• Name field “Coffee Title”

• Formula

IIF ([Product Type]=“Coffee”, “Coffee Sales”, “”)

Conditional Formatting

TITLE FIELD CREATION• Duplicate field 3 times

IIF([Product Type]=“Espresso”, “Espresso Sales”,“”)IIF([Product Type]=“Herbal Tea”, “Herbal Tea Sales”,“”)IIF([Product Type]=“Tea”, “Tea Sales”,“”)

• Place fields onto Level of Detail shelf

Conditional FormattingTOOLTIP MODIFICATIONSCoffee Title: <Coffee Title>Espresso Title:<Espresso Title>Herbal Tea Title: <Herbal Tea Title>Tea Title: <Tea Title>Product Type: <Product Type>Sales: <SUM(Sales)>

<Coffee Title><Espresso Title><Herbal Tea Title><Tea Title>Product: <Product Type>Sales: <SUM(Sales)>Budgeted Sales: <SUM(Budget Sales)>

Conditional Formatting

REMOVE COMMAND BUTTONS• Remove the Keep Only and Exclude bar at the

bottom of tooltip windows– Uncheck “Include Command Buttons”

• Please duplicate your worksheet

Conditional Formatting

CONDITIONAL TOOLTIP TEXT• Create Calculated Field based on Sales

• Name field “Difference”

• Formula

ABS([Sales]-[Budget Sales])

Conditional Formatting

CONDITIONAL TOOLTIP TEXT• Create Calculated Field based on Sales

• Name field “Over Target”

• Formula

IIF(Sum([Sales])>Sum([Budget Sales]),“over”,“”)

• Duplicate field, swap “over” for “under”, “>” for “<”

• Place new fields on Level of Detail shelf

Conditional Formatting

CONDITIONAL TOOLTIP TEXT• Format Tooltip similar to:

<Coffee Title><Espresso Title><Herbal Tea Title><Tea Title>Sales of <Product Type> were <SUM(Sales)>. This is <SUM(Difference)> <AGG(Over Target)><AGG(Under Target)> our target of <SUM(Budget Sales)>.

Stand Up, Stretch, Introduce Yourself to your Neighbor

Tooltip Hyperlinks

CREATE IN DASHBOARD USING ACTIONS• Create dashboard; bring over worksheets

• Add URL Action

• NameGoogle search results for <Product Type>

• Run action on = “Menu”• URL

http://www.google.com/search?q=“<Product Type>”

Hover Help

USER CONFERENCE PLUG• 2011 Tableau Conference – AWESOME!!

• Anyone going to San Diego this year?

• Tips & Tricks of the Wild – huge hit– Steve Wexler introduced Hover Help

Hover Help

What is Hover Help?

Hover HelpUSER QUESTIONS

• What do I do?

• What does X mean?

• Who developed this? / How do I get in touch?

• What dataset was used?

• What version of the viz are we on and what changed between versions

DEVELOPER QUESTIONS

• How do I take up less dashboard real estate with instructions?

• Who is part of the project team?

• Who developed this? / How do I get in touch?

• What version of Tableau was used?

Hover Help

5 BASIC STEPS1. Created in own worksheet – call it “Hover Help”2. Create calculated field for help notifier– Place on Rows shelf

3. Specify shape for Hover Help icon4. Create informational tooltip5. Add Hover Help to Dashboard

Hover Help

CREATING CUSTOM SHAPES• Shapes stored in

\My Documents\My Tableau Repository\Shapes

• Create new folder – “Custom Shapes”

• Copy and paste an image in new folder – consider “?” icon or audience expectation

• Valid image formats:– .PNG, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP and .TIFF

Hover Help

TOOLTIP FORMATTING• Know audience

• Use title & body

• Use coloring, spacing, font sizing effectively

• May run out of room; be succinct

• Hide worksheet title and field labels for rows on dashboard

Hover Help

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS• Circular/odd shape image, use transparent

background

• Consider removing all lines in Help worksheet

• Play with Fit Selector in Dashboard

• Play with size of icon in workbook

• Common position – upper right

Viz Versioning

COMPANY LOGO• Use company logo to keep track of – Viz versions and changes– Project participants and their contact info– Data source used– Who commissioned viz and when– Who initially created viz and when– How to contact developer– Version of Tableau used