A information with free assets for constructing your expertise
Tableau is a wonderful device for visualizing knowledge. Nonetheless, it’s not intuitive software program you possibly can study by discovery. Count on plenty of frustration in case you begin clicking across the interface with out having a strong background in knowledge and visualization rules.
This text builds on my latest article containing a group of free assets for studying Tableau.
The very best free assets for studying Tableau
Right here, I make it easier to maximize these and different assets by summarizing the 5 important issues learners should know earlier than studying Tableau. My suggestions are primarily based by myself experiences instructing new learners knowledge evaluation and visualization.
This checklist needs to be seen as a degree of departure to assist orient your studying actions. Watch out, considering it’s an exhaustive checklist of suggestions or a brief guidelines you possibly can full earlier than working with the software program.
Ensure you have a transparent and deep understanding of the variations between knowledge sorts, particularly between measures (or metrics) and dimensions, and steady vs. discrete. Each choice in Tableau hinges on having a transparent understanding of information. Do not forget that these ideas apply broadly to knowledge evaluation and visualization, not simply Tableau.
Probably the most time-consuming work in knowledge visualization is getting ready the info. Most knowledge units are in broad format, however Tableau prefers knowledge within the lengthy format. Tableau offers performance for pivoting the info however won’t ever let you know when it’s time. Earlier than studying Tableau, guarantee you will have a strong understanding of broad and lengthy knowledge.
I strongly advocate that each pupil spend plenty of time reviewing the paper Tidy Knowledge, by Hadley Wickham. You possibly can safely ignore the content material on R coding, however all the pieces else on structuring knowledge is important. The paper is technical and sophisticated for novices however crucial to any severe work with knowledge. Spend time working by the paper and revisiting it repeatedly as you construct expertise with knowledge.
I additionally advocate this text in Towards Knowledge Science by Jonathan Serrano:
Lengthy and broad codecs in knowledge, defined
Don’t underestimate the worth of spreadsheet expertise. For a number of causes, I train introductory Tableau programs and guarantee my college students have a agency grasp of spreadsheet expertise. Spreadsheets permit you to see your knowledge, which is important to understanding its contents and construction. When working with knowledge, it’s best to constantly take a look at the uncooked knowledge and the summarized kind. Spreadsheets are wonderful for your knowledge.
You’ll generally must make corrections within the uncooked knowledge, which isn’t potential with Tableau. Moreover, spreadsheet features for manipulating knowledge are just like Tableau’s features for creating calculated fields. Many wonderful free assets exist for studying spreadsheets. If you’d like a single assortment of high-quality, free assets, go on to Leila Gharani’s YouTube channel. She has a implausible assortment of movies masking all the pieces you could learn about spreadsheets.
Visualizing knowledge is just like summarizing knowledge utilizing spreadsheet pivot tables. I typically create abstract tables in Tableau earlier than constructing my visualizations to make sure all my calculations are right. Whereas generally known as textual content tables in Tableau, they’re basically the identical as spreadsheet pivot tables. Pivot tables will power you to know the crucial variations between measures and dimensions and the several types of aggregations. Since pivot tables are a part of the spreadsheet expertise, I refer you to Leila Gharani’s tutorials:
Tableau is a device for visualizing knowledge. Regardless of your technical proficiency with the Tableau, your information of visible communication shall be your limiting issue. You want a strong understanding of visually representing quantitative knowledge, particularly the variations between measures and dimensions and steady versus discrete values. Take time to construct a conceptual understanding of marks and channels. Listed here are a couple of movies to get you began.
Once more, do not forget that Tableau is only a device, and studying Tableau shouldn’t be the identical as studying knowledge visualization. I can train you tips on how to use a hammer, however that doesn’t imply you possibly can design and construct a home. For that motive, I’ll take the freedom and refer you to certainly one of my earlier articles that emphasize the crucial distinction between the position of software program and design when doing knowledge visualizations.
Much less software program, Extra design
Once more, this text shouldn’t be exhaustive, however a brief checklist of important issues to get you oriented in studying Tableau. Be happy to make use of the feedback part to submit different assets and stuff you discovered useful in your studying. Make sure to comply with me in case you are enthusiastic about constructing your knowledge expertise and studying Tableau.
