mgmt 3125 –introduction to data visualization · 2020-06-03 · mgmt 3125 –introduction to data...

MGMT 3125 – Introduction to Data Visualization

John Sokol, MSWeek 6 – 2/27/2019

Chapter 5: Think like a designerTableau dashboards and stories

MGMT 3125 – Spring 2019

Agenda• Quiz 3, Quiz 4 review

• Assignment 3, assignment 4 review

• Chapter 5: Think like a designer (review on your own)

• Calculated fields and parameters wrap up

• Tableau dashboards and stories

• Mid-Term review


Six lessons• Understand the context

• Choose an appropriate visual display

• Eliminate clutter

• Focus attention where you want it

• Think like a designer

• Tell a story


Three good design practices

• Highlight the importance stuff

• Eliminate distractions

• Create a clear hierarchy of information

Highlight the important stuff• At most, 10% of the visual should be highlighted

• Bold, italics and underlining; use for titles, labels and captions to

differentiate these elements (bold preferred)

• Use uppercase for titles and keywords. AVOID USING DIFFERENT FONTS.

• Color is effective when used sparingly


Remove excess elements• Context

• What needs to be present for your audience to make sense of the visual

• Clutter

• What takes up space but doesn’t add information to the visual

• Are elements present that distract from the main message?

“You know you’ve achieved perfection, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing to take away” – Anthony Cifelli

Some considerations• Only keep the data that is critical

• Consider summarizing when appropriate

• Ask yourself: would eliminating this change anything?

• De-emphasize secondary elements by changing color to gray


Visual hierarchy: super-categories

• Provide context for your audience

with custom x and y scaling • FEW – MANY• LOW - HIGH

• Custom scales draw in audience

with bold, capitalization and

context for the actual axes


Accessibility• Don’t overcomplicate!

• More complicated visual à longer it takes to understand à less likely to spend

time to understand the visual

• Legibility

• Use an easy to read font (Arial, Calibri work great)

• Language

• Use simple language over complex wording


The power of annotation

Acceptance• There will be backlash for attempting to implement new data

visualization practices

• Explain the benefits of minimalistic design

• Show before and after side by side

• Get senior leadership on board with the changes


Assignment 3 review


• Life expectancy (1960 – 2007) line graph

• Marriage by age line graph

• IT tickets by location bar graph

Quiz 3 review


• Marriage Trends line graph question

• Botched; points returned for either of the following answers:

• Change the data type to string and a dimension; drag the sex data field to 'Detail' in the

marks card

• Change the data type to string and a dimension; drag the sex data field to 'Label' in the

marks card

• Many students chose NOT to change the data type; incorrect

Calculated field wrap up• Dividing the DATE TIME column in the heart rate data

Use the SPLIT( ) functionDATE column: SPLIT has 3 arguments

• Convert [DATE TIME] to type string

• Single space as delimiter

• 1 as token number, indicating

we only want values to the left

of the delimiter

Use the SPLIT( ) functionTIME column: SPLIT has 3 arguments

• Convert [DATE TIME] to type string

• Single space as delimiter

• -1 as token number, indicating

we only want values to the right

of the delimiter

Calculated fields are NOT ALWAYS derived from existing data fieldsExample: Plain string/text

Calculated fields are NOT ALWAYS derived from existing data fields

Parameters• Dynamic values that replace

constant values in calculated

fields, filters, or reference lines

• The audience/dashboard user

can CHANGE parameters if the

dashboard creator (you) permits

Assignment 4 review


• 5 Walmart calculated fields

• 8 Titanic calculated fields

Quiz 4 review


• OR operator

• Modulus operator (45 % 5 = 0)

Tableau dashboards and stories• Open Tableau 2018.3 on your personal computer or labratory PC

• Import the Long Beach Island dataset available on Blackboard

• Video of this dashboard lecture is available on Blackboard


Assignment 5 – due 3/8


In class• Long Beach Island dataset dashboard

• 2 worksheet visualization view

• 3 filters on the right side of the dashboard

• Walmart dataset dashboard

• 3 worksheet visualization views

• 3 filters on the right side of the dashboard

• Walmart Tableau story

• Find a convincing story about the data, then tell the story with Tableau stories

• State the findings that you will visualize

Mid-Term Review


Two foundation topics you MUST understand:

• Data types

• Dimensions vs. Measures

Week 6 items dueMID-TERM - 3/6

• STUDY! Re-read chapters 1 – 5 in textbook, complete assignments 1 - 5 again, and

review quizzes 1 - 5

Assignment 5 – 3/8

• Tableau dashboards

Quiz 5 - 3/8

• Chapter 5: Think like a designer, Tableau parameters, dashboards and stories

Discussion board 5 - 3/8

• Your thoughts, comments, and opinions on the chapter 5 reading


mgmt 3125 –introduction to data visualization · 2020-06-03 · mgmt 3125 –introduction to data...

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