This document summarizes a Tableau visualization contest entry on sushi inspired by a Seattle restaurant. The visualization uses custom polygons to represent individual pieces of sushi. It includes an interactive voting system embedded in the visualization using web technologies. Other features include custom shapes, icons, and a handbuilt dataset. The document provides details on techniques for creating the polygons in Illustrator and Tableau, designing the voting system using PHP and SQL Server, and other design elements in the visualization like tooltips and paging.

1. SEATTLE Tableau USER GROUP
Viz & Share

2. TABLEAU SUSHI
2016 Food Fight
Iron Viz Feeder
Contest Winner
Notable Features
• Custom Polygons
• Interactive Voting
System
• Custom Icons
• Graphic Design
• Hand built dataset
Inspired by Sushi Kashiba http://www.yelp.com/biz/sushi-kashiba-seattle

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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 on trial
and error to get polygons that I liked

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
2015 Wiki Iron Viz
Finalist
2015 Cartagena
Data Festival
Finalist
Notable Features
• Small multiples on
one worksheet
• Bars, Arrows, and
numbers
combination
• Amount of data
shown

10. SMALL MULTIPLES
Dual Axis Small Multiple
Primary Axis
• Bar chart
• Reference lines
• Country labels
• Ranking numbers
Secondary Axis
• Negative axis (below
the bars)
• Shapes with position
changed labels

11. SMALL MULTIPLES
Small Multiples
Column and Row Dimensions
• I did this one in SQL
• INDEX() can be used as a
calculated measure
• Bars colored to the
background color to create
separation between each
country
• Bars also allow the labels to
be above the bar chart

12. OTHER PIECES
Paging based on
year (paging
works within the
workbook, but
not very well
when uploaded)
Custom shapes
for information
(URL links are
dashboard
actions)
Stacked bar
chart to add a
little design to
the viz
A label that
updates when
data is filtered
on rollover on
within the small
multiples
Bar chart
plotting each
year of the data

13. 13
ThankS!