In 6/28/2016's Viz of the Day, it is charting the China Tea Leaf Index created by Reuters/Thomson, an index that is tracking the Chinese Economy. The index is composed of 10 factors. The formula is a nonlinear calculation. 10 factors are used as parameters that we can exclude one or more to see how much the index changes.


When excluding some of the factors, however, we lost the view of the initial index with all the factors. So, the tweak I added is a pair of lines using dual axis. One line chart shows the original index with full factors. The other is with reduced factors. This way, we visualize the impact of some of the factors on the Tea Leaf Index. We see the difference if some of the factors are excluded.

Here is the resulting viz by excluding the Tencent stock factor. We see that the index of the month is reduced by 17%. That's how Tencent can affect the index. However the impact is not linear in the calculation.


One of the major objectives for data visualization is always to show the difference between different categories or scenarios, etc. The difference or the change is the information. Otherwise, we are not exerting the maximum impact that data visualization may bring about.

The workbook can be downloaded here.
Posted by
Labels: TweakThursday
2

View comments

  1. Great work! I've created a vaguely similar dashboard with 9.0.14 (stuck with this version until my company upgrades it's server). Unfortunately it looks like I can't even open your dashboard since I'm running and old version.

    I used fixed LOD calcs to create comparison to a population average. What functionality did you use to allow parameters to be applied only to one graph line while leaving the other unaffected?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Chase, you can try either of these:
      1.Download Tableau Public which is free. Use it to open my workbook.
      2.Try this http://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2016/6/converting-tableau-files-new-conversion-tool-55326

      Delete

(Refresh the page if you want to view the gif image multiple times. Or go to Tableau Public and click the button at the top-right corner.)

Jake and I collaborated on a dashboard. He told me that he learnt a way to create an in-place help page in Tableau. He first saw it at a conference somewhere and couldn't recall who the speaker was. So I am blogging here about it but the credit goes to somebody else. If anyone knows who the original creator is, leave a comment below.

The key idea is to float a semi transparent worksheet on top of the dashboard, where a help text box is strategically placed on top of each chart. This way, we can explain how to view each chart and what data points are important, etc. This worksheet is collapsible by a show/hide button. 

Below I would like to show how this worksheet can be constructed.

1. Sheet with a single data mark.

  • Double click the empty space in Marks panel and add two single quotes. Make the null pill a text label. This creates a single null mark.
  • Set the view as "Entire View"

2. Create an show/hide button

  • Go to the target dashboard
  • Drag a floating vertical container to the dashboard, making it cover all the area of interest.
  • Drag the Single Null Mark sheet and drop it into the above container. Hide the sheet title.
  • Create an open/close button for the container and place the button at the top-right corner.

3. Add annotations

  • Format the sheet background opacity as 70% in the layout manager             
  • Select area annotations and place them anywhere of interest. 
  • Write help text and format it to highlight important messages.  
  • The text can serve as functional guide and/or insight guide.

Here is an example. Feel free to download the workbook and explore. Click the "i" button at the top-right corner to view the in-place help. 

Posted by
0

Add a comment

Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.