Step-by-step resource guide for learning how to use Tableau

Welcome to the world of data visualization

Data visualization it is an art of presenting data in a way that even a non-analyst can understand. A perfect combination of aesthetic items such as colors, dimensions and labels can create visual masterpieces, revealing surprising business insights that in turn help companies make informed decisions.

Data visualization is an unavoidable aspect of business analytics. As more and more data sources are discovered, business managers at all levels adopt data visualization software, that enable them to visually analyze trends and make quick decisions. Today, the most popular tools for visualizations / data discovery are Qlikview and Picture. We have already released a step-by-step learning path for Qlikview.

Tableau is one of the tools for data visualization and business intelligence (WITH A) fastest evolving. It is very quick to implement, easy to learn and very intuitive to use for a customer. Then, a learning path is provided for anyone new to Tableau. This path will help you learn Tableau with a structured approach.

Beginners are advised to follow this path religiously. If you already have some background, or you don't need all the components, feel free to go your own way and let us know how it turned out.

Before diving, We also suggest reading the three wonderfully written guides below on Tableau:

Paso 0: Why is data visualization essential?

Before starting our journey with Tableau, I want to emphasize “Why data visualization is essential and how it helps companies make smarter decisions?” Here's a video to whet your appetite:

Talk about data visualization

What's so great about Tableau?

There are numerous tools available to perform data visualization, so why tableau? Watch the video below to get the solution:

Tableau customer stories

Tableau Product Tour

According to the Gartner Magic Quadrant of 2015, Tableau is a market leader in all BI products.

Paso 1: Time to download and install Tableau

Tableau offers five top products that meet diverse viewing needs for professionals and institutions. Son:

• Tableau Desktop: Made for individual use
• Tableau Server: Collaboration for any organization
• Tableau Online: Business intelligence in the cloud
• Table reader: Enables you to read files saved in Tableau Desktop.
• Public Table: For journalists or anyone to post interactive data online.

Quick functions

1. Tableau Public and Tableau Reader are free to use, while Tableau Server and Tableau Desktop come with a free trial period of 14 days fully functional, after which the user must pay for the software.
2. Tableau Desktop comes in both a lower-cost Professional and Personal edition. Tableau Online is enabled with an annual subscription for a single user and scales to support hundreds of users. Tableau has gone through different versions, here we will discuss the learning curve of Tableau Desktop 9.0.

You can download the trial version of Tableau Desktop from Picture web portal, but it is only enabled during 14 days. Install it on your machine by following the steps and start your data visualization journey.

After 14 days, you can continue your data visualization journey using Tableau public, but it has its limitations and you must share your data publicly.

Paso 2: Introduction to Tableau

Tableau offers free online training programs, live and in the classroom (Payments). This is the best place to start your journey. I suggest you follow the path below. Here's free online training (“by request”) with additional resources. All of these videos contain the dataset to explore at the end.

To view these training videos, you must register first. Expand the section “Introduction” and see the three available videos. These videos will talk about connecting to data, data preparation, creating views, The filters, panels, the story points and the alternatives for distribution.

Paso 3: Data connection

Tableau can connect to multiple data sources, as text, excel files, databases and big data queries. In this section, we will see the basic concepts and advanced features of data connectivity with different sources. Here we will also see the types of combination, data combination, connection with cubes, custom sql and Google Analytics.

This section has 12 videos and the average length of the videos is ~ 5 minutes.

Paso 4: View creation and analysis

Tableau has multiple options for representing data in different views, apply filters / breakdowns / formatting, create sets, groups, generate trend lines and forecast. Start exploring!

You have now looked at various objects to visualize data. A big dilemma you will face when creating your data visualization is which object should you select to represent the data.

The snapshot below will help you pick and choose the type of display. Despite this, the auto-select feature of available views in Tableau takes care of this problem to a great extent. This feature automatically activates the best views for the selected dimensions and measures. Therefore, no need to worry. You're in good hands !

Paso 5: exercise

Until now, we have analyzed data connectivity, multiple objects and creating views in Tableau. Time to get your hands dirty with data and generate inferences using different visualization methods:

Kaggle has organized a data science contest to predict crime category in San Francisco based on 12 years (of 1934 a 1963) crime reports from all neighborhoods in San Francisco (they give the hour, location and other features).

I encourage you to explore the dataset (train.csv) using Tableau visually (to download the dataset, must register in Kaggle) and show hidden trends like:

• Are there specific groups with higher crime rates?
• Is there an annual trend / monthly / daily / hourly?
• The distribution of crime is uniform in all geographic areas or in different

Share your visualization on our social media channels and tag us, the best views will be rewarded with exciting gift vouchers.

Paso 6: Time to socialize: join the community and groups

Now that you know Tableau well, it's time to become part of the Tableau communities. This will help you a lot to improve your learning., get answers to questions and a simplified description of complex topics from bloggers. Then, I list some of the most useful resources:

1. Tableau Community: It works on the principle of learning, connect and enjoy. Has forums, groups, ideas, visualization talks and workbook library. Here you can get answers to your questions quickly. By using the ‘ideas’ section, you can vote for the best product ideas from the Tableau community and add your own to the mix.
2. Analytical Vidhya discusses: We are a niche in this domain, but we have tableau experts on board. These experts will answer your questions in detail and with a simplistic approach.. Our discussion portal already has few questions associated with Tableau and many other topics. You should jump, if you haven't done it yet.
3. Blogs: Blogs are always helpful to understand the detailed content that covers the basic and advanced concept of any complex topic in a more structured and simplistic way..
4. Linkedin Table Groups / Facebook: LinkedIn and Facebook have some great groups to ask questions and connect with colleagues or experts, some groups of special interest are:
   1. Tableau Software: The largest Tableau group on Facebook, more than 75.000 I like it.
   2. Tableau Software fans and friends Y Table Entusiastas : These two are the largest and most active group on LinkedIn with 20 Y 6 thousand members respectively.

Paso 7: Dashboards and stories

Creating Tableau 'Dashboard and Stories’ is USP (one-time selling initiative) of the product. The panels thus created turn out to be amazing and certainly take this product to the next level.. Tableau's online training program has a separate section for dashboards and stories. This section covers the topic listed below:

1. Board and story creation
2. Add views and objects to dashboards
3. Apply filters to the panel
4. Various layout and format options
5. Interactive dashboard
6. Story points

Means:

Paso 8: Advanced expressions

At the same time of the measurements and dimensions available, you can create a calculated expression to develop a new visualization. May be based on date, mathematical logic, text expressions, input parameters and others. For data scientists, can connect tableau with R to boost the power of analytical inferences.

Paso 9: Advanced display methods

Tableau has amazing features for creating advanced visualizations. We can generate advanced charts in Tableau by playing with some of the properties of the objects. Below is the list of advanced visualization methods that help to represent the data in a more efficient way:

• Waterfall charts
• Bump graphics
• Funnel charts
• Box plot
• Pareto graphics
• Histograms and others

You can refer to the How to “On demand”Tableau training to explore these visualization methods.

Paso 10: Introducing Tableau Server and Online

With Tableau Server and Online, can schedule tasks and provide authorization to enable data security. It's a Tableau admin job, but understanding these concepts always helps you in the development of the board. Below are the resources to understand these two concepts more effectively.

Paso 11: practice makes everyone perfect

At this stage, I have almost covered most of the concepts you need to create a good board / display. Now is the time to practice more and more so that you can firmly control this tool and feel comfortable with any aspect of Tableau..

All the best

What do you think of the learning path? If you think something should be added or deleted, let us know. We would love to hear it.

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