Best of Tableau Web: April 2022

The Tableau Community provides many things to many people, both tangible and intangible. One of the greatest gifts I’ve received from the DataFam is the gift of feedback, something my partner in crime, Andy Cotgreave, mentioned in the lead up to last year’s IronViz competition.

Now, there are right and wrong ways to provide feedback, which is why I participated in Joshua Smith’s Feedback Loop a few years back. The Feedback Loop was a small group discussion framed around building visualizations and going through two feedback rounds, intentionally structured to improve how we give feedback. Nichole Klassen’s blog post, Lessons Learned from the Feedback Loop, reminded me that the Feedback Loop is still going strong! Today, she and Michelle Frayman run the program and her post points out some great lessons learned from participating. 

The first, “Be Cautious About Providing Unsolicited Feedback,” can be very difficult in the age of Twitter! We’ve all been there: Someone posts a viz, and you have an immediate response and want to share. Stop! Make sure the author is actually looking for feedback before tweeting your opinion. And authors, if you do get unsolicited feedback, try giving the person providing feedback the benefit of the doubt and assume the best intentions. 

One great example of unsolicited feedback going right was from Dorian Banutoiu and his blog, Call Center Dashboard in Tableau. Dorian participates in Real World Fake Data, and after posting his most recent submission, he got feedback from someone in the Call Center Operations business. While appreciating the beauty of the viz, Shazel Gomes pointed out that it wasn’t actionable and in some cases, irrelevant. Shazel took the time to provide other possible views that would have more value for the viz. Dorian engaged Shazel in a conversation, took the feedback into account, and updated the post with a second version of the viz. 

“Surprise, surprise! The dashboard looks good but it’s irrelevant. There’s nothing more useless than a dashboard that isn’t actionable. Time to cry, right? Wrong! I started breaking down his comment and I realized how valuable it is. I like to think of myself that I’m good with Tableau, but my experience with Call Center data is a big fat 0 … With [Shazel’s feedback] in mind, I reworked the dashboard.” —Dorian Banutoui, Call Center Dashboard in Tableau

When it comes to feedback, keep in mind that a) no one knows absolutely everything, b) we all viz differently, and c) the answer to most things in the data viz world is “it depends.” So wait a beat, seek to understand and learn, and let’s keep the love flowing.

With that, enjoy Best of the Tableau Web with tips, tricks, inspiration and more produced by the Tableau community. Don't forget to check out the list of blogs we follow for Best of the Tableau Web. If you don’t see yours on the list, we invite you to add it here.

Calculations

• Can you switch between KPIs?
  

  Donna Coles, Donna Coles

• Top 10 Functions in Tableau You Need to Know
  

  Anthony Smoak, Smoak Signals

• How to Keep Superstore Data Sets Up to Date for Tableau
  

  Eric Parker, OneNumber

Code

• How to Validate Join Results in Tableau Desktop
  

  Eric Parker, Eric Parker

Data Culture, Blueprint

• Lessons Learned from the Feedback Loop
  

  Nicole Klassen

Formatting, Design, Storytelling

• Top 10 Tableau Formatting Tricks
  

  Eric Parker, OneNumber

• Tips for Building a Resume in Tableau
  

  Brandi Beals

Inspiration

• Iron Quest Re-Viz-It – Recap
  

  Sarah Bartlett, Sarah Loves Data

• #DataFam Tableau Wishlist
  

  Adam Mico

• How to Make an Expanding Donut Chart in Tableau
  

  Alyssa Huff, Playfair Data

Server

• How to build a Lineage Dashboard using only the Tableau Server Logs
  

  Annabelle Rincon, Rativiz

• Tableau Data Sources Part 2: Published Data Sources & More
  

  Ken Flerlage, The Flerlage Twins

Tips and Tricks

• 3 Ways to Normalize Data in Tableau
  

  Matt Snivley, Playfair Data

• Tiny Tableau Tips - Round 1
  

  Kevin Flerlage, The Flerlage Twins

• How to Create Horizon Charts in Tableau
  

  Marc Reid, datavis.blog

• Tableau Conference Attendee Guide 2022 #data22
  

  Sarah Bartlett, Sarah Loves Data

• Boosting Tableau Dashboard’s Performance
  

  Priya Yogendra Rana

• Build Better Sparklines in Tableau
  

  Anthony Smoak, Smoak Signals

• How to Fine-Tune Your Data for Tableau
  

  Megan Menth, phData

• How to add dimensions after measures without converting measures into discrete values
  

  Vani Agarwal

• Introduction to Tableau Actions + Filter Actions demos + BONUS Topics
  

  Donabel Santos, sqlbelle

• Sets and the Set or Parameter Actions that Change Them
  

  Jim Dehner

• Want to Deploy a Successful Dashboard? Ask These 3 Questions First
  

  Nicole Mark, Mighty Canary

Visualizations

View last month’s Viz of the Day on Tableau Public gallery.