Chapter 7.  Telling a Data Story with Dashboards

As you engage in data discovery and analysis, you will create numerous data visualizations. Each of these visualizations gives a snapshot of a story within the data. Each view into the data answers one, or maybe a couple of questions. At times, the discovery and analysis are enough to make a key decision and the cycle is complete. Many times, however, you will need to bring these visualizations together so that they communicate a comprehensive story to your intended audience.

Tableau allows you to bring together related data visualizations into a single dashboard. This dashboard could be a static view of various aspects of the data or a fully interactive environment, allowing users to dynamically filter, drill-down, and interact with the data visualizations.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• Dashboard objectives

• Example - is least profitable always unprofitable?

• Designing for different displays and devices

• How actions work

• Example...