Overview Tableau’s automatic axis feature can often present problems with survey data. In this blog post we’ll look at how the problem crops up and what you can do to both fix the problem and make your visualizations more insightful. The problem with auto-adjusting bars Tableau’s automatic axis does a great job extending and contracting [...]
August 3, 2017 In my last blog post I pointed out that I wish I had put BANs (big-ass numbers) in the Churn dashboard featured in chapter 24 of the book (see https://www.datarevelations.com/iterate.html.) I had a similar experience this week when I revisited the Net Promoter Score dashboard from Chapter 17. I've been reading Don [...]
The Importance of feedback, iteration, and constant improvement in data visualization (and finding people that will tell you when you are full of crap.) July 5, 2017 Overview People ask me how three opinionated people can write a book like The Big Book of Dashboards together. Didn’t we disagree on things? How were we able [...]
May 10, 2017 Overview A nod of appreciation to Tom Davenport who first brought this issue to my attention. Most organizations want to wildly exceed customer expectations for all facets of all their products and services, but if your organization is like most, you're not going to be able to do this. Therefore, how should [...]
April 25, 2017 Overview I became a big fan of adding a marginal histogram to scatterplots when I first saw them applied in Tableau visualizations from Shine Pulikathara and Ben Jones. For those not familiar with how these work, consider the scatterplot shown in Figure 1 that shows the relationship between salary and age. [...]
More thoughts on the Markimekko chart and in particular how to build one in Tableau. April 4, 2017 Overview Given my reluctance to embrace odd chart types and my conviction that I would find something better I was surprised to find myself last month writing about -- and endorsing -- the Marimekko chart. If I [...]
Or How I stopped worrying and learned to love appreciate the Marimekko March 19, 2017 Overview Readers of my blog know that I suffer from what Maarten Lambrechts calls xenographphobia, the fear of unusual graphics. I’ll encounter a chart type that I’ve not seen before, purse my lips, and think (smugly) that there is undoubtedly [...]
Overview Imagine a terrific introductory college course presented by a terrific professor. That’s the feeling I had in reading The Truthful Art, Alberto Cairo’s follow up to his first book The Functional Art. Whereas his first book took a “look at what you can and should do” approach to help people see and understand data, [...]
Overview As readers of this blog know, I have my problems with donut charts. That said, I acknowledge that they can be cool and, under certain circumstances, enormously useful. On a recent flight I was struck by how much I liked the animated “estimated time to arrival” donut chart that appeared on my personal TV [...]
Overview My obsession with finding the best way to visualize data will often infiltrate my dreams. In my slumbers I find myself dragging Tableau pills in an ongoing pursuit to come up with the ideal dashboard that shines light on whatever data set has invaded my psyche. But is the pursuit of the perfect dashboard [...]
