A few days ago, the Viz of the Day on 3/13/2019 is made of Joy Plot, authored by David Velleca. Quite a joy to look at for sure. After some digging, I found that it is based on an approach proposed by Ken Flerlage. It uses data scaffolding techniques with a few extra tables. Here I propose a new approach without extra scaffolding. Just the original data set will suffice.
The Data Set
Here I will use the same data set of Ken's. The data set is a simple time series with 3 columns: Dimension, Time and Value. Ignore other columns.

There are 7 elements in Dimension in the sample data set. Therefore we will see 7 area charts with some overlapping area.

Step 1: Union the data set with itself.
Load the data into Tableau and drag the 'Data' sheet to the data source editing canvas. Union the 'Data' sheet with itself. Note that a new column is created: [Table Name] with two values Data and Data1 specifying two tables respectively.

Step 2: Create Keys
Create the keys for the dimension elements. The key is equivalent to index for the dimension elements without the complexity of table calculations.

Step 3: Create the following calculated fields
All these calculations below are based on Ken's approach.
[Path]: the path for creating the area chart polygon.
[Max Time]: for each dimension.
[Size of Dimension]: Using LOD instead of Size() to avoid table calculations.
[Value Adjusted]: Keep the original values and make the values in the Data1 table to be 0.
[Value Adjusted for Dimension]: Elevate the values of the dimension elements to different heights. Tunable with the parameter Spacing.

Step 4: Charting
Drag [Time] and [Value Adjusted for Dimension] to Columns and Rows shelves. Drag Dimension to the Color shelf. Set the marks to Polygon and drag Path to the Path shelf.

Sort the Dimension by the field of Maximum(Dimension) in descending order.

We are done. The new approach is mainly different in data preparation which has fewer steps.

Additional cosmetic steps 
Add dual axis line charts with tool tips, labels and borders if you wish.

A different approach is included which fully automates the creation of keys. It requires some table calculations. Also it requires custom sorting of IndexD and Dimension. Please look into the details of the workbook if you are curious.

That's all. Enjoy the Joy Plot! Download the workbook here.
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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. 

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