The Joy of Dashboards - Communicating Data with Tableau - page 274

Chapter 12. The Joy of Dashboards
“You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredi-
ents.”
—Julia Child
If we compare communicating data with cooking, then what we've covered so far in this
topic amounts to a course on individual ingredients. Just as a master chef knows how to com-
bine ingredients to serve up a meal, so an expert communicator of data can mix different
charts, graphs, and tables to deliver a multifaceted message.
The analogy to a meal in this context is known as a dashboard . In this chapter, we'll consider
different types and styles of dashboards, and we'll outline key factors to consider before cre-
ating them for consumption.
But first, it's important that we distinguish between two different, but related meanings of the
word:
A data dashboard
A single display that combines multiple data visualizations, tables, text, and figures to
give a multifaceted view of a subject.
Dashboards in Tableau
One of two tab types (the other type is a Sheet) that allows users to combine one or more
Sheets with other objects—such as text, images, and web pages—into a single display.
The first definition is a general term describing how data is shared, and the second relates
specifically to Tableau. The main difference between the two is that a data dashboard always
involves multiple views in the same display, while a Dashboard in Tableau doesn't necessar-
ily include multiple views (though it often does).
In other words, it's possible to create a Tableau Dashboard that only contains a single Sheet.
Why would anyone do this? As we'll show, Dashboards in Tableau can be used to add text
and images and format even a single visualization in helpful ways, as the Periodic Table
dashboard in Figure 12-1 illustrates.