Representing data in a visual format is essential from the point of view of faster and better decision making. The only problem is that not all analysts are familiar with the graphical design principles that could help them build visualizations that can be further used for decision making.
However important an insight, if visualized unclearly, it can mar the effectiveness of the decision-making process. A visual analysis tool that can automatically show the data using the best practices of data visualization is the answer to this.
Tableau is a great data visualization tool that is intuitive and incorporates the best practices of data visualization. Among the many fascinating features of Tableau, Show Me! is one of the most powerful features and helps us visually display our data while abiding by the principles of data visualization. Depending on the selected Dimensions and Measures, the Show Me! panel gives us all the possible visualization choices. It also has an in-built best practice recommendation, which essentially helps us show data in an apt visualization feature. Let's understand how to use Show Me! for building charts, discussed in the following recipe.
To understand how to automatically create a chart using Show Me!, we will start by creating a new worksheet in our existing Tableau workbook. Perform the following steps.
- First create a new worksheet by pressing Ctrl + M on a keyboard and renaming the sheet from Sheet 4 to Automatic approach-Show Me!.
- Then, select Order Date from the Dimensions pane via a single left-click. Next, press Ctrl on your keyboard and select Sales from the Measures pane. While selecting Sales, that is the second field, continue pressing Ctrl on the keyboard. In short, to select multiple fields from the Dimensions or Measures pane, we need to press Ctrl + Select. Refer to the following image:
- Keeping the current selection as is, click on the Show Me! button on the extreme right-hand side of your Tableau workspace. Refer to the following image:
- Select the Line chart option, which is highlighted with a brown color border, and our view will be updated to show a chart as shown in the following image:
When we select fields and click on the Show Me! button, Tableau automatically evaluates the selected fields and gives us the option of various views that can be created using those fields. Since Tableau makes an educated guess at how the data should be displayed, we will see that some charts are enabled and others disabled.
Further, when we hover over any chart in the Show Me! panel, we will see all the necessary options that are required to enable that chart. This section is available at the bottom of the Show Me! panel. Refer to the highlighted section in the following image:
Once we select the fields that we want to use, we will also see a specific chart highlighted with a brown color border. This is the built-in best practice recommendation given by Tableau.
Tableau will follow a series of logic to suggest the most suitable chart to represent the selected Dimensions and Measures, and this ability of Tableau is best explained in an article, Show Me: Automatic Presentation for Visual Analysis, written by Jock D. Mackinlay, Pat Hanrahan, and Chris Stolte.
Note
Refer to http://www.tableau.com/whitepapers/show-me-automatic-presentation-visual-analysis for more information on the paper.