This document summarizes a presentation on visualizing and customizing maps in Tableau. It discusses techniques for visualizing dynamic measures on a map by allowing the user to select different metrics to fill the map. It also covers cleaning up maps to only show a limited geographic area, filling maps using custom regions instead of default boundaries, and customizing map styles and colors. Demonstrations were provided of these mapping capabilities in Tableau.

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TCC 13
Washington, DC
Leigh Fonseca, Fonseca Data Science
Ian White, Urban Mapping

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TMS
Tableau Mapping
Powers all things geo in Tableau
Proprietary API to Tableau for map services
5x faster, more reliable than WMS

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Tableau Mapping
Out of the box capabilities include
Place-level geocoding data
Three map styles, rendered worldwide
Demographic data
Polygons for US places/countries for filled maps
Map Card overlays

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About Leigh
Data Strategy & Visualization Consultant
How did I arrive here? “Tableau, not White Papers”
Political Campaigns, Major Retailers and Startups
Fast friends with mapping
@missleigh

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Agenda
Visualizing Dynamic Measures on a Map
Visualizing a Clean Map -- Dual Axis and Filling a
Limited Geographic Area
Fill a map using Custom Region definitions
Custom Map Styling

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Visualizing Dynamic Measures on a Map
My company has sales, profit and cost data.
I wish to view data on map and allow user to
select which metric fills in the map.

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Dynamic Measures: Demo

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Visualizing a Clean Map:
Dual Axis and Filling a Limited Geographic
Area
My company has sales in California and I want to
visualize those metrics on a map.
However, all the background images and data in
Tableau seem to clutter and complicate the view.
How can I show only California and my sales?
What if I want Map Layers only for California?

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Visualizing a Clean Map:
Dual Axis and Filling a Limited Geographic
Area
Option 1: Dual axis & turn off all map layers
Option 2: Leveraging a custom TMS file

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Visualizing a Clean Map: Demo

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Fill a Map Using Custom Regions
Evaluate Sales by Custom Regions
My company has sales regions that are defined my
multiple states or multiple countries and I would like to
1) color the map with these custom regions and 2)
show an aggregated sales metric for the region.
By default, Tableau will show the sales metric at the
state or country level even when I have grouped several
of these geographic regions into a single internally
defined region.

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Custom Sales Regions: Demo

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Custom Point Generation Tool

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Fill a Map Using Custom Regions
Marketing Efficacy by Industry Recognized Regions
My company tracks our sales metrics by Nielsen
DMA regions.
I would like to display those sales metrics as filled
DMA regions rather than the ZIPs.

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Custom Marketing Regions: Demo

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Fill a Map Using Custom Regions
High-res Imagery & Crime Data
I am reporting on crime and would like to display city
level metrics.
How can I create a visually engaging map and show
metrics at the address or intersection level?

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Point Data and Imagery: Demo

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Custom Map Styling
I would like to change the default colors and
boundary displays for my map

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Custom Map Styling: Demo

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Map Hacking FAQ
HackYourMap.com/faq

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Contact
leigh@fonsecadatascience.com
ian@urbanmapping.com
@missleigh