Dashboard Development Overview

Once our partner data is in a Tableau-friendly format, the process of dashboard development begins. 

Tableau Desktop

Tableau is a powerful analytics platform that can be used to provide interactive, visual analysis of even the most complex sets of data.

If you are interested in exploring what the world of data analytics can offer to your department, downloading a trial copy of Tableau is a great place to start. Due to compatibility requirements with AggieDash, please make sure to download Tableau's trial version that is current with our UC Davis servers. To learn what version we are currently on visit our AggieDash section. Tableau's 14-day trial period will give enough time to familiarize your data analytics team with Tableau and decide on a path forward. More information on licensing. 

Training & Resources

With hours of video and accompanying workbooks, the free Tableau Training and Tutorials page is a great place to start when getting familiar with the software. Topics include Getting Started with Tableau, Connecting to Data, Visual Analytics, Calculations and more.

Online Tableau resources:

• Forums
• Guides
• YouTube Channel
• Public Dashboard Examples

Tableau & AggieDash

For tutorials specific to AggieDash and for tips and tricks that our team has found useful and interesting, feel free to explore our Tableau Tips and Tricks page. If you need help with your Tableau development work, please email Institutional Analysis.

• Information about how to become an AggieDash Partner

UC Davis Slack:

• Slack Channel: #tableauchat
• Slack Group: #tableauchats: This is an informal group of Tableau users – we chat, we seek and provide advice, sometimes we even meet in person and grab a cup of coffee.

Licensing

Under UC's licensing agreement (valid through December 2022), partners have one option for paying for Tableau:

For your copy of Tableau, please click here. Due to compatibility requirements with AggieDash, please make sure to download Tableau Desktop version that is current with our UCD servers. For further questions about getting started, please contact our head Tableau representative, Meghan Roberts.

Style Guide

• How to upload the UC Davis Color Palette onto Tableau
• University of Oxford's Comprehensive Tableau Style Guide
  An excellent and comprehensive guide to designing Tableau dashboards
• UC Tableau User Group's Guide to Color Theory
  University of California Tableau User Group's beginner's guide to color theory
• InterWorks' Guide to Visually Appealing Dashboards
  A quick and easy, one page reference for dashboard design principles
• Tableau's Best Visual Practices
  Tableau's official and comprehensive tutorial on the best visual practices for making dashboards and using Tableau
• How to Build Accessible Dashboards
  Tableau's official guide on how to build accessible dashboards.
• Accessibility Color Palette using UC Davis Colors
  Accessibility color combination guide using UC Davis colors.

Dashboard Development

Once our partner data is in a Tableau-friendly format, the process of dashboard development begins. 

After an initial consultation, our partners develop first-draft dashboards to answer the data questions that they may have had. This round of dashboard development serves to define design and data analytics goals for the project. 

Once the goals are clear, we work together with our partners to develop a more comprehensive dashboard (see below) to the agreed-upon specifications. At this point, the dashboard undergoes User Acceptance Testing, and upon approval it is published to AggieDash for the appropriate audience.

 
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Tableau Tips & Tricks

• Parameter Series 1: How to Create a Dynamic Highlighter
  One way to distinguish your visualization is to add a level of interaction for the user. In this case, we are going to explore using a Parameter to dynamically highlight items in our visualization. For example, if you are giving a presentation about which cities have the highest sales, a Parameter will help you highlight the top several cities for emphasis.
• Parameter Series 2: How to Create Interactive Maps
  In this tutorial, we will look how we can use the same Parameter feature to create an interactive map that colors areas that are above and below a Profit threshold that the user can change dynamically.
• Onboarding the UC Davis Color Palette into Tableau Desktop
  When visualizing university data, for design and consistency purposes, Strategic Communications stresses adherence to the color scheme provided in the UC Davis Marketing Toolbox.
• How to Copy and Paste Data into Tableau
  Sometimes, you want to create a quick visualization in Tableau but don’t want to go through the steps of connecting to your dataset. For smaller datasets, Tableau gives you the option to Copy and Paste the data directly.
• Grouping Tableau Tabs with the Use of Color
  Tableau allows the user to color-code individual tabs in a document. This gives the user another way to group tabs for easy viewing and organization.
• Line Formatting in Tableau Dashboards
  Have you ever created an informative and insightful Dashboard that ended up looking clumsy and not well organized? The root of the problem may be a lack of structure.
• How to Avoid Blank Graphs - Relevant Value Filters
  In this tutorial, we will look at how to use the Relevant Values feature in Tableau to make sure that visualizations don't appear blank.
• Tableau "No Data to Display" Warning Message
  In this tutorial, we will look at how to create a "No Data to Display" warning message when mutually exclusive filter options have been selected.