Chapter 10. Visualization Best Practices and Dashboard Design

My first solo Tableau training engagement was in Manhattan. At that time, my understanding of the tool was okay but my understanding of data visualization theory was not. One of the students in that class was quite well-versed in data visualization theory and actually knew Edward Tufte (the godfather of data visualization) personally. It wasn't long before he found me out! I stumbled along as best as I could but it was obvious that I had a huge hole in my knowledge that needed to be filled. Perhaps I received more of an education from the student than he did from me!

Since that fateful week in Manhattan, I've read Edward Tufte, Stephen Few, and other thought leaders in the data visualization space. This knowledge has been very fruitful. For instance, quite recently, a colleague told me that one of his clients thought a particular dashboard had too many bar charts and he wanted some variation. I shared the following two quotes:

...