As I mentioned in a previous post, Tableau is a data visualization software that can help users to create interactive and dynamic visualizations of their data. With Tableau, users can connect to various data sources, including spreadsheets, databases, and cloud services, and create interactive dashboards, reports, and charts.
Tableau’s drag-and-drop interface allows users to create visualizations quickly without coding or advanced technical skills. As a result, Tableau is commonly used in business intelligence, data analytics, and data science to help people better understand and communicate their data insights.
There are many options in the market. I have tried Google Data Studio, Microsoft Power BI, and, most recently, Tableau.
Advantages of Tableau:
- User-Friendly: Tableau is a user-friendly data visualization tool that requires no coding or technical skills, making it easy for anyone to use and understand.
- Interactive: Tableau’s interactive features allow users to filter, sort, and drill down into data to gain deeper insights and explore data from different angles.
- Fast and Efficient: Tableau’s in-memory data engine allows for fast and efficient data processing, allowing users to analyze data in real-time.
- Customizable: Tableau’s extensive customization options allow users to create and customize various visualizations, from simple bar charts to complex interactive dashboards.
- Integration: Tableau can easily integrate with many data sources, including databases, cloud services, and spreadsheets, making it a versatile tool for data analysis.
Disadvantages of Tableau:
- Cost: Tableau can be expensive for small businesses or individuals, as the full version requires a paid subscription.
- Steep Learning Curve: While Tableau is user-friendly, mastering the tool’s full features and capabilities requires significant training and experience.
- Limited Compatibility: Tableau may only be compatible with some data sources or systems, limiting its versatility and usefulness for specific projects.
- Limited Formatting Options: Tableau’s formatting options can be limited, making it challenging to create highly customized and branded visualizations.
- Large File Sizes: Tableau workbooks can become quite large, especially when working with large data sets, leading to slow performance and longer load times.
The power of Data Visualization in Tableau
Imagine you have a business with three different lines of products: office furniture, office supplies, and technology; you have a database with your orders, sales by product and by state, customer name, order numbers, price, costs, and all this information get to your data warehouse from the different branches you have across the country, you are in charge of the business analytics department, what will you do to provide some interesting insights about your sales?
If you have a tool like Tableau con can easily create reports of sales by state and by category or sub-category of products, calculate costs per unit or total cost, dollar margin, and even ratios like the category development index to measure the sales performance of a product category within a specific market.
If you have Tableau Desktop, you first need to import your database and create the relationship between the tables; remember, you will need a “key field” or common field between the tables to establish the connection.
On Tableau, you only need to specify the data source and then drag and drop it to the center of the screen. The database relationship will look like this:
Once you have created the relationship between your tables, you can work with Sheets, stories, and dashboards.
- Sheets are individual worksheets containing one or more visualizations and allowing users to view and interact with their data. Users can add multiple sheets to a single workbook to create a more comprehensive analysis of their data.
- Stories are a sequence of visualizations designed to communicate a specific narrative or message. Users can combine multiple sheets and dashboards into a story and add text and annotations to guide the viewer through the analysis.
- Dashboards are a collection of related visualizations and other objects, such as filters and legends, designed to provide an at-a-glance view of critical metrics and insights. Dashboards are often used to monitor performance and track progress toward specific goals.
If you want a create a chart showing the total revenue per region, the result will be something like this:
Tableau is very simple to use, If you are interested, the following video can explain you in a few minutes how to get started with Tableau.
