MM_2019_W04; Rabbit chasing | Formula's | Great Resources


The proverbial Rabbit hole;  This is my dog chasing a squirrel (we'll say a rabbit for this post though :-) This week, I went down a rabbit hole (def; To enter into a situation or begin a process or journey that is particularly strange, problematic, difficult, complex, or chaotic, especially one that becomes increasingly so as it develops or unfolds) .   I typically try to start with my own thoughts but also keep in mind that I want to learn new topics.  So as folks post to #MMVIZ review;I  think, oh that would be good to learn.  But what I learned this week is don't take on more than you can handle.  I started down a path with something that at this point was a bit above my head.  @r_headington had a great viz he posted that looked at using Zooming-in and sliding on a time-series in Tableau. He took his inspiration from @canonicalizedco's blog post canonicalized.com/zoom-slide-tab… but changed the slider to set actions. Here is his final viz. I worked at breaking down the viz but got stuck on the zoom piece and what he was doing with the filter and the zoom before\after periods.  And then I was confused on some of the formulas he had and knew I was going to have to explain them here.  I also liked some of the heat maps but wanted more interactivity.  So, with time ticking away, I decided to go a different direction and try to keep it simple. To me the calendar view really made sense in my head and seemed a bit more simple.   But I still wanted the interaction as it had been a few weeks since I've had any interaction in my viz.  In the end this is what I would up with.

 Tooltip

Two Starts\Stops
@r_headington




Luke Stoughton great heat map and breakdown of summer\winter and really liked the scatter plot.  I thought to go with Business and Non Business hours but then realized the weekends would play into that and there may have been weekends were work was being done and not sure I should have excluded all of those. So, decided to go a different direction (again).



My end result had 3 pieces of Dashboard from an information perspective; **
  1. The calendar is  simple to understand with averages across the top.
  2. Viz inside  tooltip allows to see the data by day
  3. The chart at the bottom allows to use Dashboard actions to look at specific timeframes like @R_headington did but was easier for me to understand and break down. (Inspiration; Bona Wang)
** By definition; it may be too much as Andy and Eva focus on keeping the MM Viz's simple. And the favorites this week were the viz's that had the most simplistic views but told a story.  For example compare the electricity to 'something'.  One viz compared the Year use of electricity  to having a HUGE tv screen on  the front of 10 and 11 downing street for 63 days straight.  Again, tell the story and I know comparatives help with the story.
What I learned this week.
  1. In the Tooltip worksheet; needed to have a time with AM/PM; These were the variables;
    1. Hour AMPM; (with the yellow highlight needs to be completed first)
      1. [Date Time (hour)] = DATEADD('hour',DATEPART('hour',[Time of day]),[Date])

  1. IF DATEPART('hour',[Date Time (hour)]) = 0 THEN '12'
ELSEIF DATEPART('hour',[Date Time (hour)])>12 THEN STR(DATEPART('hour',[Date Time (hour)])-12)
ELSE STR(DATEPART('hour',[Date Time (hour)])) END // this is for hours
+ ' ' +
IF DATEPART('hour',[Date Time (hour)])>=12 THEN 'PM' ELSE 'AM'
END

This became part of the tooltip in the bottom chart



  1. On the calendar it took me a little bit to find the formatting for the S (vs Sunday) to make it short and easy to read. In the Format  for Weekday (date), there is a First letter option.




Resources
  1. From the live presentation; Andy and Eva offered 3 excellent resources.
    1. Learning Tableau: Resources and tips to help you on your Tableau journey.
    2. Tableau Reference Guide; searchable tips on things like below;
  1. Joshua Milligan and his post on dates in Tableau.

  1. The folks that inspired me this week.
    1. Robert Headington
    2. Bona Wang
    3. Luke Stoughton
    4. Meera


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I secured my Tableau Specialist Certification

Image
I have been asked for input and resources in reference to securing my Tableau Specialist Certification, so I thought it would be best to write about it in a blog. I would register for this test NOW as the SPECIALIST cert if 50% off until the 1 st of the year (end of 2018).   You can register now and take it months later if you want.  Essentially, tools I used can be broken into these pieces; The hard part right now is the specialist cert is so new there are not a ton of resources for just the specialist but more of the Desktop Qualified Associate.   So hopefully this will help.    .        Classes    .        Resources           Prep for the certification I.Classes : I did not take any of the paid Tableau courses but did take several courses through Linkedin and Udemy. I like Udemy more just because I can go back any anytime an...
Read more

New Years; New ‘Goals:keeping up with the 'side gig'

Image
I am trying to get back into Tableau and keep my skills fresh while doing some other things with my career and job. So, getting back into Tableau had been fun, albeit a little time consuming. My goal is to publish every other week and absorb the MM webinars weekly.   This will give me a little breathing room for work while still keeping in the field.   I have been keeping up with the weeks but this is my first lessons learned post.  I hope to go back to the previous weeks and talk through lessons learned as time permits.  Week1 was a big struggle for me but a very fun one so stay tuned! MM_W5 , I really wanted to learn how to do a negative bar chart. This is in essence displaying a set of data in bar but show it against a colored background to help the reader understand the data visually against 100%.   I believe this has a stronger impact than just a standard bar chart.   Lessons Learned: Dual Axis; To do this type of chart you n...
Read more

MM_2019_W03 | Hex Maps | Adding Color Pallet | Highlight Bars in Chart

Image
Hex Maps | Adding Color Palette | Highlight Bars in Chart  This week we'll talk about these topics. How to do I go about approaching the topic and my direction. Lessons learned Resources How do I approach the Topic; Learn from others\refresher; I have to be honest, because I am so new to Tableau and want to learn as much as possible as I am working on my weekly viz's, I often look at others and see if something resonates with me.   Eva and Andy have been talking about keeping things simple lots lately so I try to focus on that when I look at other's viz's.   I also either try to pick at least 1 new learning lesson (easy to do at this stage) or something I haven't focused on for a while for a refresher. Sketch out what I am thinking ; yep, I try an jot down what I am thinking on paper. Many times it takes different directions but I think it's important to at least start wit...
Read more