Level up with Tableau to build eye-catching, easy-to-interpret data visualizations. In this follow-up guide to Practical Tableau, author Ryan Sleeper takes you through a collection of unique tips and tutorials for using this popular software. Beginning to advanced Tableau users will learn how to go beyond Show Me to make better charts and learn dozens of tricks to improve both the author and user experience.
 

Featuring many approaches he developed himself, Ryan shows you how to create charts that empower Tableau users to explore, understand, and derive value from their data. He also shares many of his favorite tricks that enabled him to become a Tableau Zen Master, Tableau Public Visualization of the Year author, and Tableau Global Iron Viz Champion.

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  •  Learn what’s new in Tableau since Practical Tableau was released
• •  Examine unique new charts—timelines, custom gauges, and leapfrog charts—plus innovations to traditional charts such as highlight tables, scatter plots, and maps
• •  Get tips that can help make a Tableau developer’s life easier
• •  Understand what developers can do to make users’ lives easier
  
  Data is everywhere today. Technological advances have made it possible to track and store more data than ever before, providing a competitive advantage for those who can best harness and translate this twenty-first-century “oil.” The best way to convert raw data into valuable insights is through analytics and data visualization, and—just like we need refineries to transform oil into more useful products—we need tools to help us capture the potential competitive advantage data can provide.
   

In a crowded field of analytics and data visualization tools, Tableau’s pace of innovation has helped it emerge as a clear leader in this space for the foreseeable future. As of this writing, Tableau has been recognized as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms for eight consecutive years.
 

In 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce, which will only further expedite Tableau’s trajectory and make its products an everyday need for hundreds of thousands of users around the world. Simply put, there has never been a better time to learn and level up in Tableau.

This Book’s Purpose

I wrote Innovative Tableau as a sequel to Practical Tableau: 100 Tips, Tutorials, and Strategies from a Tableau Zen Master (below) to build on the foundation laid out in that book and share innovations that will help us collectively change the world with data.

This book has three objectives:

1) To catch you up on the product developments introduced since the release of Practical Tableau

Although Tableau is almost constantly introducing new product features, it also does an uncanny job at keeping the heart of the product intact. In fact, of the 100 chapters in Practical Tableau, only a single chapter has become obsolete since it was first released in 2018—and that’s due to a change in the company’s license model; not the product itself.

For this reason, we chose to publish a completely new sequel as opposed to a book update. However, we want to bridge the gap between the first and second titles by filling you in on what’s new and keeping you on the cutting edge of what Tableau is capable of.
 

2) To help you level up

To me, the biggest compliment is when somebody asks, “You made that in Tableau?” This is not to say that Tableau doesn’t help you make beautiful visualizations and seamless user experiences on its own, but it means that you have an opportunity to set your work apart. This book is a guide for getting the most out of Tableau and pushing the envelope on what you can deliver.
 

3) To inspire creative applications of the fundamentals

You will come to realize that you can combine individual techniques to create what I call “creative applications of the fundamentals.” This book shares many of my favorites in the hope that you can immediately improve your own and your audience’s experience with Tableau. Most important, I hope it inspires you to think differently when you’re using Tableau and sparks your own creations that you will pay forward.

This Book’s Audience

This book is relevant for anybody who wants to get more from Tableau, make more engaging and effective chart types, improve their own authoring experience, and deliver world-class analytics tools to their audiences.

That being said, it is assumed you have read the first book in this series, Practical Tableau, and/or have the prerequisite level of Tableau experience to match the content in the first book.

About the Author

Ryan Sleeper is founder and principal at Playfair Data and has consulted with dozens of the world’s best-known brands. He is author of the book Practical Tableau: 100 Tips, Tutorials, and Strategies from a Tableau Zen Master and has shared his data visualization strategies worldwide, including speaking engagements in London, Tokyo, Toronto, and Singapore. Ryan’s work in Tableau has earned him the titles of Tableau Zen Master, Tableau Global Iron Viz Champion, and Tableau Public Visualization of the Year author.