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Join us at the 1st Tableau European Customer Conference!
We hope to see you at the upcoming Tableau Conference in Amsterdam, May 9th-11th. Amsterdam should be beautiful in early May along with a slate of exciting conference speakers including Stephen Few, Christian Chabot, Chris Stolte, Jock Mackinlay, Elissa Fink, Marc Rueter and other great people from Tableau. Freakalytics will be teaching our … Read more
Where is the authoritative Tableau reference guide???
As you are likely aware, we wrote the first book on Tableau, “Rapid Graphs with Tableau Software“. It is intended to guide people through the overall capabilities, product flow and key features of Tableau. At 160 pages, it is an intentionally light and quick-flowing introduction to using Tableau for typical data analysis and visualization needs. A new version of the book for version 6 of Tableau will be out soon.
However, we occasionally hear from advanced users seeking an authoritative reference guide on Tableau. Given the breadth of Tableau capabilities
Bullet charts and simple enhancements to maximize value
Bullet charts were added to Tableau in version 5.1. They are an original idea designed and advocated for by Stephen Few, at the University of California at Berkeley. The bullet chart is intended to enable easy examination of attainment relative to a target for categorical items.
According to Stephen’s original specification, “The bullet graph was developed to replace the meters and gauges that are often used on dashboards. Its linear and no-frills design provides a rich display of data in a small space, which is essential on a dashboard.”
I have shown the standard Tableau bullet chart and a wide array of variants in our public training course. Based on extensive attendee feedback, I will share how just a few minutes spent enriching your bullet charts will yield powerful enhancements for your dashboard audience.
Links to purchase books by Freakalytics
Reference card appiPhone & AndroidFree!
Groupon madness, estimate your short and long-term profit or loss
It seems that you can’t avoid Groupon in the news lately. Consumers are mad about using Groupon since they can find great deals at often unheard of discounts. Even for customers, there is a often a down-side with reports of customers mobbing unprepared businesses and leaving frustrated or unhappy with the experience.
My review of multiple profit estimates shows that without a high rate of repeat business, your Groupon gains will likely end up as a big loss! However, if you can handle the volume of business and are considering offering Groupon at your business, you should download my spreadsheet to estimate the short and long term profitability of your participation.
1) The example used in the spreadsheet is based on a local restaurant. Their standard entree cost is $32.55 with the Groupon deal offered at $14.79. The fee to Groupon is half of the $14.79, leaving the business with $7.40 to cover $8.90 in marginal food and staff costs.
The lighter side of pie charts and bar charts
Stephen Few is famous for railing against the frequent overuse of pie charts. Overall, we agree with Stephen, pie charts are frequently misused when other chart types would likely be a superior choice for exploring and understanding the data at hand.
In our training classes we sometimes ask students why they (or their boss) prefer pie charts. The answer is typically “because”. That’s about it. They have often given little thought as to why this is their favored choice, but all the standard applications make them easy to generate and “expected” by their managers.
Eileen has pondered if the fascination with pie charts started during our childhoods. Particularly with our childhood love of pizza and dessert pies. Children often debate which piece of pie is “theirs”. As a result, it is only natural as adults to assume
Mapping Canadian Postal Codes in Tableau
A recent training attendee asked for assistance with mapping Canadian customers by Postal Code. Tableau can do this, but you must complete two steps before mapping data at the Canadian Postal Code level.
Review of Tableau 6, the dawn of “Personal Business Intelligence”
Is traditional “Business Intelligence” obsolete?
Tableau 6 is a major leap forward in providing personal data analysis capabilities. I reviewed the capabilities of Tableau 6 prior to the Tableau Customer Conference 2010 and found myself stunned at the major achievements forthcoming in Tableau 6. There are several capabilities in Tableau 6 that will radically change how people think about and use data in their daily work.
These achievements will have a significant impact on analysts
Product summary and download links for Tableau Software desktop products
Tableau has three desktop products available for download. The last two are absolutely free for anyone to use!
Tableau Desktop is the full-featured version of the revolutionary visual data analysis software. Connect to almost any data source to explore, visualize and quickly gain insights. Wrap it all up with dynamic, easy to create dashboards! Go to