Getting started
1. Getting started
Now that you know the value of dashboards, we're going to take a look at how to create them. In this screencast we’ll create a simple dashboard using best practices. As you can see here in the Tableau window, there are four worksheets already available that we can use for our dashboard. The way we're going to do that is to click this icon over here which will create a new dashboard. I'm going to rename the dashboard to “Station analysis”. There we go. And then I'm going to drag the sheets onto the dashboard like this. As you can see, when you select a visualization, these gray square boxes show up on the right as guidance. So, I'll drop the “Top Stations” worksheet next to the map and then add the “Starts by Day” bar chart over here. Finally, let’s add the “User Type Counts” KPI table on top of the map. As you can see, the corresponding filters are added here on the right as each worksheet is added. Let’s also make the map a little bit bigger. Okay, the next step is to make sure that the dashboard makes use of the entire space available in the Tableau window. We're going to do that by clicking on size here, and then changing fixed size to automatic. Now the dashboard will resize to fit any screen it is displayed on. What we're going to do next, is make sure that these worksheets make up the entire view. Currently, I have to scroll if I want to see all top stations. Let’s solve that by clicking this little down arrow and then selecting the entire view. Now the entire visualization is visible. Let’s do the same for the other worksheets. At the moment, there is a lot of information on the dashboard. Let’s remove some of the clutter to make the dashboard more intuitive for end users. Let’s first hide this axis title since it doesn't add much information. Next we’re going to rename the “Count of Trips” axis to make it more clear. You can do that by clicking “Edit Axis” and then changing “Count of Trips” to “Number of Trips”. Next up, let's hide some worksheet titles. Just like before, this title doesn't add much information, so I'm going to remove by clicking this little arrow and unchecking “Title”. That’s better. Let’s do the same for the other worksheet titles. Great, our next step is to add some interactivity to the dashboard. We’ll make sure that each of these visualizations can be used as filters. The way to do that is to click on the viz and then select “Use as Filter”. Now, if you select any part of the visualization, the other worksheets on the dashboard will filter based on that selection. So let's make sure we do that for every visualization in our dashboard. This will allow us to reveal insights that could have been missed otherwise. Note that when doing this, action filters get added to the filter shelf of the worksheets. So when I select a station in this bar chart, you can see that the other worksheets are not only filtered in the dashboard, but in the worksheets themselves as well. Now, let's take a closer look at this bar chart right here. It shows the number of trips by weekday. If we hover over the bar, you can see that there is no information related to the number of trips. Let’s add that in the form of a table. The way to do that is actually to go back to the worksheets and make some edits there. I'll add a new worksheet and rename it to “Time Block Counts”. There we go. Let’s add “Time Block” and “Count of Trips” to the sheet. I’m going to hide this title because it's not going to be useful in our tooltip. If we now go back to the “Start by Day” worksheet, we can click on the tooltip card and easily insert the sheet we just created. You can see that it shows up in the tooltip now. Let’s navigate back to the dashboard, and here as well you can see the count of trips information in the tooltip. So remember, you can always go back to edit worksheets if necessary while working on your dashboard. That’s it! It’s your turn now to create your first dashboard!2. Let's practice!
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