Introduction to Tableau (2)

Before we begin…

About Tableau

Tableau helps people see and understand data.

It can be used to make really pretty visualizations, as Jonni Walker does.

It can be used as way to disseminate reports that update frequently, as Redfin does.

It can be used for interactive maps Brexit

Today, we use Tableau to explore data with maps.

Interacting with Tableau

  1. Download workbook from Tableau Public
  2. Open Workbook in Tableau Public
  3. Pause for definitions:
    • Marks Card: Chart type
    • Show Me
    • Shelfs: Rows, Columns, Color, Size

Challenge 1

The ‘Price by ZipCode’ sheet is attempting to compare the price of homes across different zipcodes. In what way does it do this well? In what ways is it doing it poorly? Spend some time trying to make it better.

Dashboards

Challenge 2

Together: Add the ‘Actions: Bar Chart’ sheet to the ‘Actions: Dashboard’ Dashboard. Add a Filter action to the dashboard, and then use the Dashboard > Actions dialog to create a filter action between the two sheets.

Independent: Add the ‘Actions: Date’ sheet to the dashboard as well. Add a dashboard action that Filters only the ‘Actions: Date’ sheet when the user clicks either the map or the bar chart.

Extra Challenge: Use the Layout tab on the left to start formatting the dashboard.

Filters

Challenge 3

Together: Add a “Bedrooms” Filter to the “Filter: Distribution” Sheet. Make it appear on the ‘Filter: Dashboard” dashboard, and apply to all sheets.

Independent: Add a “Bedrooms” filter to the “Filter: Distribution” Sheet as well, and add it to the dashboard.

Extra Challenge: Use the Layout tab to make the dashboard look nicer. Add some other filters to the dashboard. Go back to the ‘Actions’ dashboard and add some actions there as well.

Calculations

Challenge 3

Together: Look at the ‘Calculation: Price per Square Feet’ sheet. Look at “calc sheet” field, and see how it changes as you change the “Lot or Living” parameter.

Independent: It would be much better if the zip codes were colored by average cost per sq ft, to make a more unified message. Create a calculated field to compute price per sqft, and color the map using that instead.

Extra Challenge: Add another option to the parameter and calculated field to also show price per bedroom.

Calculated Fields

Part 2: Mapping Specifically

Geocoding

Challenge 4

Part 3: Data Prep

Bring in the data

Challenge 5

Together:

  1. Drag the Washington Neighborhood boundaries to Tableau.
  2. Go to the Data Source tab, and select “add connection”.
  3. Select ‘Neighborhood_MedianRentalPrice_1Bedroom.csv’
  4. In the join, join on ‘Region name’ = ‘Name’, and ‘County’
  5. Pivot all of the columns that are months
  6. Rename ‘Pivot Field Names’ to ‘Month’ and ‘Pivot field values’ to ‘Median Rental Price’
  7. Add ‘2Bedroom.csv’ to the pivot as well.

Independent: Add more data sets to the pivot