Tableau: First Steps

Our lives are full of data—there are numbers everywhere. But most people aren’t good at looking at tables of numbers and interpreting them correctly. Luckily, pattern detection is inherent in our physiology. Replacing tables of numbers with preattentive attributes (things that we notice automatically, like length, height, size, and color)—in other words, visualizing the data—allows us to share information quickly and easily.

Tableau is a tool that can take tables of data from multiple sources and convert them into a visual format. This saves time and leads to insights that might otherwise be missed. Join expert Christopher Gardner to get started with Tableau. You’ll explore Tableau’s interface and learn how to use Tableau’s tools and features to create useful, detailed charts that will tell the whole story of your data.

By the end of this course, you’ll understand:

• How to connect to your data and utilize all of it through multiple data connections, tables, joins, and field manipulation
• How to decide which chart type works best for your data, based on determining the questions you need to answer
• How to utilize graphic design techniques to make the data easier to digest
• How to manipulate visualizations and validate the numbers in them using multiple chart types, color, labels, Tooltips, and other Tableau features
• Best practices for accessibility, readability, and user experience
• How to combine your visualizations into a cohesive dashboard to tell a complete story about the information within the data

And you’ll be able to:

• Connect to multiple types of datasets, using joins, unions, queries, and filters to streamline the data
• Build a basic visualization in Tableau, using visualization and design best practices
• Identify examples of incorrect or misleading data visualizations and avoid making these kinds of mistakes yourself