Fondren Data Visualization Short Course Showcase

Tableau software company was founded in 2003 in Mountain View, California by two Stanford University students, and is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Click the link to see or download the Viz on Tableau Public Gallery with the ACS2020 5 Years Estimates tract data of Harris County. 

Demonstration of Tableau Public Software

1. Connect 
   • Cleaning up and reformatting the data
     • It is important to clean up and reformat your data because this will affect how you can analyze your data.
       • For this demonstration purpose, we didn't do any cleanup work as the file is ready for use.
       • We didn't do any pivoting or reformatting to facilitate data analysis purpose either. Take an example, for the population variables, without pivoting, it is not intuitive to create a pie chart to show part to whole because the population for different races are stored separately under different variables.  After pivoting, some data will be duplicated such as the FIPS. 
   • Connecting to the .csv and shape files
     • Workflow
       • The data files are related. They are not joined or connected as disparate files. 
         • Tableau -> Connect, Text file -> ACS 2020 5-year estimates .csv file; change the data type of FIPS from number to string.
         • From data source interface, Add -> Spatial file-> Texas Tract Shape .zip file
         • Use FIPS = GeoID to set up the relationship between the two files.
           • Relationship - files are not merged. You just tell how the files are related and Tableau will automatically figure out how to pull out data and aggregate the data as needed. 
           • Based on Location Data that Tableau Supports for Building Map Views, Tableau doesn’t support tract level location natively. When connecting the two files as disparate sources, the .csv file doesn't generate any map, which means Tableau can’t generate map based on FIPS.
           • After connecting to the .csv file, then add the shape file, with join, it creates errors. That means .csv file can’t be joined with a shape file.
           • Use the .csv file. Values of the FIPS field will load correctly.  When using the equivalent Excel file, values of the FIPS field does not load correctly, which makes Relate not work. Changing the FIPS variable to text or number doesn't fix the problem. Within Tableau, no matter what data type you assign, either string or number, Relate doesn't work either. 
     • Insights
       • When working with two or more data files on a data project, how to combine the data is critical!
       • With Tableau, you can join, union, blend, and relate data. 
2. Analyze 
   • analyzing the data with different charts
     • Workflow
       • Use bar chart for comparing median household income across Harris county tracts 
         • Show drag and drop features, sorting, and filtering
           • drag median household income to the rows shelf and qualifying name to the columns shelf.
           • show swap and sort features in the toolbar
           • drag qualifying name to the filter shelf to filter to the top 10 tracts by median household income
       • Use histogram to show median household income distribution
         • Demonstrate how to use ShowMe menu for one-stop expert help
           • select median household income, from ShowMe menu -> historgram
       • Use scatter plot for showing correlation between race percentage and median household income
         • Show aggregation and how to de-aggregation
         • Show how to use analytics objects
           • select both median household income and the % of population, white alone, then from ShowMe meun-> scatter plot
           • to de-aggregate data, analysis -> uncheck Aggregate Measures
           • to add trend line, Analytcis pane -> trend line
       • Use text table for showing the tracts and their population race makeup
         • select qualifying name and % of population, race
         • from ShowMe menu, choose text table
     • Insights
       • Tableau has a user friendly interface, it is easy to get started on basic features
       • Tableau has powerful built-in features for data analysis
   • Mapping the geographic tract data and visualizing median household income on the map
     • Workflow
       • Create a Texas map using the tract data provided
         • Create a new sheet - name it HarrisCountyTracts
         • Double click on Geometry
       • Filter the map to Harris county 
         • Drag Countyfy from the shape file to the filter shelf, choose 201 that is Harris County
         • Drag Qualifying Name to detail, Harris county has 1115 tracts.
       • Turn on some map background layers
         • Map-> background layers -> streets, highways, and routes. This will orient yourself better on the map.
       • Bring the data to the tract level
         • Drag Qualifying Name to Detail mark card; this will disaggregate the mark from the Harris County level to the Harris County tract level. 
       • Visualize median household income on map
         • drag median household income to color. Edit color-> blue-teal -> 5 steps

     • Insights

       • Tableau's mapping features have become more powerful. Some people use Tableau just for its mapping feature. 
       • There are different types of maps Tableau can create.
   • Building a dashboard to view top 10 median household income tracts 
     • Workflow
       • drag the top 10 median household income tracts bar chart, map, and text table to on the dashboard
       • turn on the funnel icon on the bar chart to use it as a filter for the rest worksheets on the dashboard
     • Insights
       • Tableau dashboard allows users to view, compare, and monitor more data at one place
       • Dashboard can be interactive, letting users make selections
3. Save
   • Save the work to the Tableau public server
     • When prompted, input your Tableau public account name and password
     • Use the link to share the viz or the code to embed it to the website
   • or save it locally as a Tableau Project file with an extension of .twbx 

Go to Using Tableau Public to Analyze Your Data Libguide for Tableau workshop and consultation information.