TC18 - Advanced Mark Types

Going beyond Bars and Lines

How many chart types are there in Tableau?

There is no answer as really it’s unlimited depending on the techniques you use

1967 - Jacques Bertans wrote the ‘Semiology of Graphics’

Jock McKinley’s research

2003 - Chris Stolte creates VizQL

Tableau writes all of these elements together into one product

Heatmap Calendar

This isn’t a chart type - it’s taking date parts and placing on to shelves

Weekday on Columns, Week on Rows etc

Pareto chart

Is a line chart and a bar chart in combination

Donut Pie Chart

A dual axis pie chart with the pie in front, whited out. Mrunal used min(1) where as I use avg([Number of Records])

Hex tile map

Using a scaffold of the states and their X Y co-ordinates

Does this mean I should be using all different chart types?

Stop and think - challenge stakeholder requirements - ask why? Need vs Want

Discuss the analytical value

Build vs Analyse mentality - rather than just build the report, if you are asking questions of the data then you will create a better product

If you want the challenge to test your skills then there are lots of blogposts to help you work through the charts

Best way to learn is deconstruct and recreating it

This is what Tableau Public hugely helps with