ITOM 6212 Data Visualization and Communication

Day 4 – Dashboards and Story Boards

Dashboards and Story Points
Dashboards can tell an interactive story about the data. Before we can create a Dashboard, we need to create the
worksheets that will go in the dashboard.

Story Points let you create compelling, interactive, data-driven stories. Stories consist of specific views or
dashboard in a sequential presentation, for example walking the audience through a discovery you made as you
were analyzing the data. Dashboards can tell you the WHAT; stories tell you the WHY. To create a story we have to
create the items that are included in the story.

Create the following Visualizations using the Global Superstore and Bobs Tableau Extract created in Alteryx Day 1.

Exercise 1: Profitability Map

Create a filled map that shows each country colored by the profit. Call this Profitability Map. Use Red-Green
Diverging Color.

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Exercise 2: Scatterplot
Create a Scatter diagram using Sales (Columns) and Profit (Rows). Color by Segment. Add Customer Name to the
Detail Mark. Remove all Null Values. Make Consumer Blue, Corporate Orange and Home Office Green. Call this
Scatter Plot.

Exercise 3: Bubble Chart

Create a bubble chart using Segment and Category for the Labels. Size the bubbles based on Sales. Color the
bubbles by Profit. Use Red-Green Diverging color. Add Customer Name to the Detail. Call this Bubble Chart.

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Exercise 4: Products List
Create a horizontal Bar Chart using Sales and Product Name. Sort it by Sales. Color the Bars by Profit using Red-
Green Diverging color scheme. Call this sheet Product List.

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Exercise 5: Map showing US Sales and Profit by Category
Create a map of the cities in the United States with circles colored by Profit and sized by Sales. Use Red-Green
Divergent color scheme. Use Normal for the Map Layer. Size the circles so that you can see them. Create a Filter
by Product Category – make the filter a single value drop down and include only relevant values. Call this US Sales
and Profit by Category.

Exercise 6: Map showing US Sales and Profit by Category and Sub-Category

Duplicate the Map from Exercise 5. Add a Filter by Sub-Category as single value drop down list which includes only
relevant values. Place this Filter under the Category Filter. Call this US Sales and Profit by Category and Sub-
Category.

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Exercise 7: Bar Chart with Regional Sales by Category and Sub-Category
For the US Only, create a Visualization that shows a horizontal bar chart with Region and Sales on the Columns
with Product Category and Subcategory on the Rows. Color the Bars by Profit using the Reg-Green Divergent
scheme. Call this US Regional Sales by Category and Sub-Category.

Exercise 8: Bar Chart with US Profit by Segment and Order Priority

Create a Visualization that shows a bar chart for US only with Subcategory and Order Priority on the Rows and
Profit on the Columns. Color the Bars by Order Priority. Add filters by Region, Category, Sub-Category and Ship
Mode. Make the Filters a single value drop down list which includes only relevant values. Call this US Profit by
Segment and Order Priority.

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Exercise 9: Shape Visualization with US Profit and Shipping Cost by Sub Category
Create a Visualization for the US only, using Shapes by Sub-Category that shows the Profit on the Rows and
Shipping Cost on the Columns (in thousands) and Colored by Order Priority. Create Filters by Region, Sub-
Category, Ship Mode and Order Priority as single drop down lists – include only relevant values. Call this US Profit
and Shipping Cost by Sub Category.

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Dashboard
Now we are going to create a dashboard to showcase these sheets. To create an interactive Dashboard, go to the
Dashboard area. Set the Dashboard Size to Automatic.

Select the Profitability Map and add it to your Dashboard

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Now drag the Scatterplot onto the Dashboard. Notice that when you drag out sheets, a grey box appears to
indicate where that sheet will be placed.

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You can also have floating sheets. This way you can bring out sheet on top of other sheets. Bring out the Bubble
Chart as a Floating sheet and place it on top of the Scatter Plot.

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Resize the Bubble Chart and remove the title so it fits well in the white space.

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You can save some screen real estate by also dragging your legends into your charts – if you hold down the shift
key you can switch between tiled and floating. Resize these to fit and remove the title.

Center the Title for the Scatter Plot

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Now I want to create a quick filter for my years so I can see my data based on a specific year.

To do this, I go back to my Profitability map and create a quick filter for the year.

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Go back to the dashboard and enable that filter control.

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Make the Quick filter a slide bar.

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We can see that it affects our map, but we also want it to affect the Scatter Diagram. If I go back to the drop down,
I can select which sheets this filter will affect.

I am going to select all of the worksheets on my dashboard.

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Now when I change the year it affects all of my charts. Let’s move the filter on top of our map.

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Let’s Change the Title of the Year to Year

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Move the Segment Label to the Scatter Plot and the Profit Color Label to the Map.

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Now when I select a particular country, it shows in the scatter plot and on the bubble chart

Now, when I click on something on my map, I would like it to affect my Scatter Plot

Go to the dropdown for the map and Use as Filter

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I only want my Map to affect my Scatter Plot. To do this, go to the Dashboard menu and select Actions –Filter 1.
Edit this and uncheck the Map and Bubble chart. I also want to check single select only so it will only run when I
select a single country. Change the name of Filter 1 to Profitability Map.

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Now when I select a country it only affects my Scatter Plot not by Bubble Chart.

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Now – I will do the same for my Scatter Plot. I’d like my Scatter chart selections to affect my Bubble Chart but not
my Map. I select my Scatter Plot to be used as a Filter.

I can also go to my Dashboard menu and choose Actions. Edit the new Filter. Choose the Scatter Diagram to affect
only the Bubble Chart – but this time we van have multiple selections. In addition, when I clear my selection, I
would like the Bubble Chart to disappear so I will exclude all. Call this Filter Scatter Plot.

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Now when I select something on my Scatter Plot it affects my Bubble Chart

If I clear my selections (hit esc), the Bubble Chart should disappear.

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Let’s change the title on the Scatter Plot – Call the Sheet Customer Analysis and some instructions – make the font
smaller.

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Now if I select a customer I can see what they are purchasing.

Now I want more detail. So I will use the Product List Sheet to show a bar chart with a list of Products by their
sales and colored by profit.

Create a new Dashboard and move my Product Sheet onto my Dashboard (you need to go back to tiled mode).

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I want this list of items to update based on my Bubble Selection. So I go back to my first Dashboard and choose my
Bubble Chart as a filter. Then create an Action to use the Bubble Chart to affect the Dashboard 2 Product List.

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Now when I select a bubble it will take me to my Dashboard 2 and show me the products that customer has
purchased.

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I might not remember which customer I selected so I want to add that to the Title on my second Dashboard to
include the Customer Name and the Category. To do this, I must first go back to the Products List and add
Customer Name and Category to my Marks Card.

Then go to the Dashboard 2 and Edit the Title to include Customer Name and Category.

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Let’s see if it is all working.

Now I want to add a URL items to my Products Dashboard so I can see the product they have purchased. I will go
into my Dashboard and go to Dashboard, Actions and Add an Action – that is a URL Action

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I will call it Item Selection and use the URL from Bing.com (https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=) to link to
pictures using <Item> for the name. Note I need to add Product Name to my Marks card on my Products Sheet.

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Now I will drag a web page object to the dashboard and click ok. Now when I select the product it will come up in
the chart.

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Remove the Profit Label on the right. Now let’s name our Dashboards: Global Sales Analysis and Product Analysis

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Story Points
Story Points let you create compelling, interactive, data-driven stories. Stories consist of specific views or
dashboard in a sequential presentation, for example walking the audience through a discovery you made as you
were analyzing the data. Dashboards can tell you the WHAT; stories tell you the WHY. To create a story we have to
create the items that are included in the story.

Dashboard
Create a Dashboard that includes US Regional Sales by Category and Sub Category on the top, and US Profit by
Segment and Order Priority (Exercise 4) and US Profit and Shipping Cost by Sub Category (Exercise 5) on the
bottom.

 Remove the Profit Label;

 Remove the Sub-Category Label;
 Move the Order Priority to the Segment and Order Priority Chart;
 Fit the Category and Sub-Category to fit the Entire View;
 Fit the Shipping Cost to Entire View;
 Fit Segment and Order Priority to Width;
 Make Region Apply to All Worksheets then Delete the Second Region;
 Make Category apply to all Worksheets;
 Make Sub-Category apply to all Worksheets and Remove the Second Sub-Category;
 Make Ship Mode Apply to all Worksheets
 Remove the second Ship Mode
 Use all three charts as a Filter
 Call this US Sales.

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Story Point
Now we are going to create a Story Point to showcase these sheets.

Like Dashboards, when we create stories we use existing Worksheets but we can also use existing Dashboards. We
have now built several visualizations and dashboards to use in our Story Point. Story Points allows us to present
them to communicate insight we want to share.

To create a new Story, we’ll go to the Story menu and click New Story. We can size this story so it best fits our
dimensions.

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Let’s Create a new Story.

Just like when building a dashboard, our previously created pieces of content are arranged here on left panel. Let’s
click and drag our first sheet, US Profit and Sales by Product Category, onto the canvas. We can give this point a
caption by clicking in the navigator box. Add the caption “Our US Profits look strong, is this for all areas?”

Now, we have our overview of US profits.

This visualization is still fully interactive, as we can see by clicking through the filter. As I click through the product
categories, though, I find that furniture has the worst profits at a high level.

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A major benefit of Story Points is the ability to preserve a specific state of a given visualization – like a filter or
highlighting. Clicking “Update” preserves our modification for this point, essentially taking a snapshot of the filter
selection we made. Alternatively, we could revert by clicking the undo icon. When a change to the Point is made,
we’re also presented with the option to “Save as a New Point”. It’s the same underlying visualization, but with that
filter selection saved as the default.

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Creating Additional Points
Let’s expand our story. To keep track of what sheets have been used, this blue check means that the item has
already been added to the story. Add a new Graph to the Story by Moving it to the end of the First Storypoint.

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In the next point, I want to show the same map by Product Subcategory. Going to the next point, I can again
interact with this map to find that tables are particularly bad.

Now let’s add our US Sales Dashboard.

Next, I see that tables in the East stand out across the board as a low profit item.

The beauty of Story Points is that they go beyond a simple sequence of static images. Story Points retain the full
interactivity and possibility for discovery of all Tableau visualizations.

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Let’s Call this US Sales Sory

We show the story by clicking on the Presentation Mode.

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