Intro to Tableau Workshop

**Slide deck theme and some content adapted from Tableau-delivered Visualization
Design Workshop (link to download .pptx)
 Who Are We?
Katie Grandinetti Delaney Ryan

● 2nd-yr MPH - HBHE

● Data enthusiasts

Strong believers that every student in the

social sciences should understand how to
manage data and create digestible
visualizations

● Psychology GSI ● QMSS GSI

● Student Researcher in School of Nursing ● Student Researcher at a Non-Profit
● Current passions and experiences: Global Health, education, ● Research interests: Workforce development,
organizational efficiency and data education, and data
management/visualization/analytics management/visualization
● Translational data!!!
Workshop Agenda

1 2 3
Introduction:
What is Tableau and Demo &
Personal practice!
what can I use it for? Competencies
Slide created by: Brian Perron
What is Tableau?

Tableau is an interactive data visualization software that aims to “help people see and
understand data.”

There specific focus?

Business intelligence - uncovering insights for making strategic decisions
How is Tableau used in Healthcare?
Example
Tracking healthcare outcomes #1

Monitoring public health data

Example
#2
Analyzing health care costs
Analyzing healthcare costs
Identifying health disparities
Example
#3
Analyzing healthcare
Predictive Modelingcosts
What to know before you start Tableau

1) The people who are most successful with Tableau don’t get
discouraged and try multiple times to accomplish tasks
2) Ability to use software ≠ the ability to properly visualize data (this is
a separate skill that needs attention)
3) Don’t rely on Tableau’s default suggestions!
4) Practice makes perfect!!
 Understanding types of Variables

Imported data can definitely end up in the

Dimensions wrong category. Especially if you are using
numbers to represent qualitative data (i.e.
Discrete
gender, 1=male, 2=female)
Separation line

Measures
Continuous
Count vs Distinct Count

Count = # of variables in a column (does not account for duplicates)

Distinct Count = # of unique variables in a column

Example:
Customer ID Order ID Total Cost

del4567 KJSDFG7 $456.23

COUNT: 4
mar2387 MJA234H $243.53
DISTINCT COUNT: 3
kat9823 SIEUT7SD $987.82

del4567 WKIU5SK $189.99

Common Chart Types and Variables Used

Line charts show changes in value across

continuous measurements

Typically bar charts have a dimension variable

on the x-axis and a measure value on the y-axis.

Maps are used to display information in

different geographic areas.
Source:
https://www.nsuchaud.fr/2019/0
8/what-would-you-like-to-show-
dataviz/
Please access the MHESA User notes for
Tableau Workshop!

DEMO TIME!
Pivoting Data
ACTIVITY TIME!
Resources to Continue your data journey

● LinkedIn learning (you get this for free as a UMich Student!)

● Makeover Monday

● Datacamp (free version and $13/month for premium)

● Youtube

● Checking out Tableau Public’s Featured Viz’s

● Tableau Desktop Certification

 Thank you for having us!

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