I visited Cincinnati and joined the Tableau User Group to discuss some of my work and techniques I've used over the past few years.

1. Cincinnati TABLEAU USER GROUP
#SPANGLERLIFE

2. INTRODUCTION
@russellspangler
russellspangler@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/russellspangler/
RUSSELL SPANGLER
Sr. Business Intelligence Manager
@ Amazon
• 6 Years of Tableau server & desktop experience
• Winner of 2016 Iron Viz “Food Fight” competition
• 2016 Iron Viz championship contestant
http://public.tableau.com/profile/russell.spangler

3. HOWI GOT HERE
I’m a data person.
My Experience
Masters of Science, Information Systems
Bachelor of Science, Information Systems
MY BACKGROUND
Minitab
Excel
Crystal Reports
SSRS
Microstrategy
SAS/JMP
COBOL
Perl
VB6
Java
ASP.net/C#
SQL
SQL
Analytics (R)
Python
Data Visualization (Tableau)
Graphic Design
Cloud based tools (AWS / Azure)
Recommendations

4. CINCINNATI TO SEATTLE
Tableau has helped me
receive job offers!
Cincinnati to Seattle
2,327miles
Car: 35 hours
Train: 2 days 11 hours
Walking: 32 days
Biking: 9 days
FAR FROM HOME
https://www.yelp.com/biz/collective-espresso-cincinnati

5. HOW I GOT HERE
August 2013
MY FIRST PUBLIC VIZ

6. August 2013
Social Media Feed Contest
• Icon Menu
• Population chart using shapes
• Dividers using empty text boxes
• IFTTT to gather data
Bacon VIZ

7. March 2014
Sports Contest
• Icon menu
• Unit charts
• Small multiples
• Custom built dataset
• Hover over icons
• Click action arrow display
COMPETITIVE EATING

8. May 2014
Quantified Self
• Icon menu
• Custom dataset
• Custom grid
(single
worksheet)
• Calendar filter
#SpanglerLIFE

9. March 2015
Wiki Data
• Paging
• Created custom
grid (one
worksheet)
• Small multiples
• Icons
• Custom bar graphs
HDI

10. April 2016
Food Data
• Polygon art
• Interactive voting
system
• Creative visuals
• Custom graphics
• Custom dataset
How to guide: https://www.slideshare.net/RussellSpangler/seatug-presentation-viz-amp-share-seattle-tableau-user-group
Inspired by Sushi Kashiba http://www.yelp.com/biz/sushi-kashiba-seattle
SUSHI VIZ

11. POLYGONS
Radial Tree Map
https://boraberan.wor
dpress.com/2014/12/
31/radial-treemaps-
bar-charts-in-
tableau/
Squares Shapes
Custom grid to create
pixelated sushi
Excel Formula/Macro
Converts images to color
data points (limited
colors available)
Drawing Tool For Tableau
http://powertoolsfortableau.com/to
ols/drawing-tool

12. POLYGONS
Polygons in Illustrator
http://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/2015/11/
11/creating-polygons-of-any-image-in-
tableau/
• Trace the image
• Expand out the points
• Use color tracing for additional details
• Save for web
• Copy and paste data from Illustrator
output
• Parse the web data into an usable format

13. POLYGONS
Polygons in Tableau
• Plot points on X/Y coordinates
• Polygon Mark type
• Path ID connects the points for the
polygon
• Record ID as the detail
• Custom Colors for the sides, front,
top, and bottom of the sushi pieces
Note: I spent multiple days of trial
and error to get polygons that I liked

14. VOTING SYSTEM
Embedded web page
• Web page designed to fit
within the viz to look
seamless
• URL action when the heart
icon is clicked
• Sends URL parameters to a
web page (PHP) hosted on
a webserver (Azure)
Provides live data within the
Tableau Public environment

15. VOTING SYSTEM
Embedded web page
• PHP page with a data
connection to a SQL
Server on Azure (free
instance)
• Grab the value from the
URL parameter
(SushiName)
• Insert a vote for the
sushi item into a table
• Displayed Top 3 based
on the number of votes

16. OTHER PIECES
Worksheet with a custom shape
and tooltip on rollover
Custom shapes for ingredients
Main dashboard
• Images and icons formatted
for the design layout
Right side of the dashboard
• Information shape with
tooltip
• Ingredient shapes
• Dual Axis line and circle
chart
• Circles behind the
ingredients are images

17. IRON VIZ
Thanks @skybjohnson for the pictures!Sous Vizzer – Roger Hau

18. • Pickup and dropoff time
• Pickup and dropoff latitude & longitude
• Fare and tip amount
• Payment type
• Tax
• Passenger quantity
• Trip distance
• Toll amount
TAXI DATA

19. TAXI DATA

20. Clean dashboard
Taxi ‘exchange rate’
Took 2-3 days to build
Viz could access all 150
million records
Night before event I
practiced rebuilding
First rebuild 1.5 hours
Final rebuild 22 minutes
https://public.tableau.com/profile/ross#!/vizhome/RussellSpangler-DailyTaxiDataAnalyzer2000/Dashboard1
TAXI DATA

21. Tiger VIZ
Objectives
• WOW factor with
custom polygon
tiger (same process
as the sushi viz)
• Clean widescreen
layout
• Typography
• Custom map
• Leverage only
“basic charts”
147 objects on the
dashboard
100% Floating

22. Tiger VIZ
Icon Shape Chart
Dual Axis Map
Transparent Circle
Polygon Tiger
Map Icons
Flag Icons Area Chart
Tooltip Help Menu
Stacked Bar Dual Axis
Donut Chart
Spreadsheet
URL Webpage Link

23. MAP
Used a Full-Outer join to combine
two separate non-matching
datasets to create a dual axis map
Mapbox theme to create a cleaner
map type

24. MAP PARTII
One pixel wide shaded text box to create header divider
Text box for header label
Image with a transparent circle cut out matching background color (shaded above to
show the shape)

25. DONUT CHART & BAR GRAPH WITH ICONS
Dual axis chart
• One axis is a pie chart (with one slice)
• One axis a circle to create the “donut”
Dual axis chart
• One axis is a bar chart (labels removed)
• One axis a shape with the shape falling at the
end of bar (copy the bar measure and add a
buffer)

26. CUSTOM ICONS & area chart
Load custom icons into your Tableau
repository directory (C:Users[user
login]DocumentsMy Tableau
RepositoryShapes)
Dual axis chart
• One axis is an area chart
• One axis a circle shape using a
dimension to indicate important years

27. LOTS OF PIECES
Icon map
Map mark
manually placed
each map and
mark
One pixel
header (use
layout pane) Text only worksheet
Dual axis
Stack bars of with value of 1 (creates scale)
Value of [X].5 places circle in middle of scale
Set of icons floated
transparent objects
over icons (could
create 2 versions of
icons)

28. RecaP
• Two Complex
visuals
• Clean “basic”
visuals
• Typography
• Lots of pieces
• Idea
• Time
• Motivation
• Music
• A little bit of love

29. MY PUBLIC PROCESS
I have a general idea
of what I’m doing
(usually happens prior
to data gathering)
IDEA
Life is busy and will
always be busy, you
have to find time
TIME
Excuses are easy to
make, push yourself
MOTIVATION
Good tunes makes
sitting in front of a
computer more
enjoyable
MUSIC

30. Sketching or Wire Framing.
Recommended to help reduce
getting stuck during the
building process. Understand
the focus/goal of the report.
SKETCH & FOCUS
Connect to Data and Build.
Review your data before
building.
DEVELOPMENT
Revisit and Tweak.
Use end-user feedback to help
finalize your design. Make sure
your end-users are happy with
the report.
FEEDBACK
Review Your Creation.
Does your design make it
easy to answer the questions
you are trying to solve?
REVIEW
Tip: During development try the more difficult visuals first to confirm your data structure
NORMAL PROCESS

31. Keep it Simple: basic chart types (lines & bars) with a high level of execution
Design: Make it look great (at least better than Excel)
Create Interactivity: Use dashboard actions
Make it Meaningful: Focus on the end user and goals
Build Trust: double check your data & numbers
Time to Insight (quantify your return!)
The 30* second test
• Dashboards should be clear and easy to understand (if you don’t know what
you are looking at within 30 seconds, the design could be too complicated)
*Exact timing target varies
Tip: Reach the “AHA” moment when people realize current reports might not be the best
NORMAL STRATEGY

32. ThankS!