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Spring 2018

Digital Humanities Workshops

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Introduction

to Data

Visualization

using Tableau Public

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go.cal.msu.edu/tableau2018

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digitalhumanities.msu.edu

#msudh

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class outline

  1. introductions
  2. visualization: defined and described
  3. intro to tableau public
  4. maps, graphs, and trees
  5. wrap up

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#msudh: who we are

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Kristen Mapes

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kmapes@msu.edu

digitalhumanities.msu.edu

#msudh

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definitions

use of abstract, non-representational pictures to show numbers

Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983)

the use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition

Card, Mackinlay, Shneidermann,

Readings in Information Visualization (1999)

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wherefore

casual and artistic

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“Casual Information Visualization,” Pousman, Stasko, Mateas, (1999)

exploratory analytic

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data types

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nominal ordinal

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quantitative relational

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types of visualizations

time-series

statistical

maps

relational

trends

co/variability

change rate,

cycles

exceptions

central tendency part-to-whole deviation

uniformity

relative/absolute scale distance

size

trend

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parts-to-whole

relatedness

trends

clustering

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Tableau

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Why Tableau?

  • Tableau lets you bring together a range of visualization types in one place and to play and experiment among them with the same dataset. �
  • It’s a useful space for learning how to structure your data to tell the story or make the argument you want to convey.

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Why Tableau?

Context -

You can customize the display of your visualization to include contextual information, such as data sources, images, sound, and additional text.

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Why Tableau?

Interactivity on the web without the need to code

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Why Tableau?

Easy to publish online and embed. Easy to share.

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Important to Note

  • Tableau is a commercial software, owned by a publicly traded company.
  • Its core focus is on business intelligence and analytics.
  • It operates on a freemium basis.
  • You have access to the full Desktop version here and as a student, but there is also a Public version.
  • If you use the Public version, note that you are required to save your visualizations publicly online, so be aware if you are working with sensistive data.

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kristenmapes.com/tableau

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Goals for the workshop

  • Loading in data
  • Creating a map
  • Creating an area chart or a tree map
  • Compiling a dashboard
  • Saving

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go.cal.msu.edu/rosedata

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Visualization & Tableau Resources

Extensive Visualization Types Guide, from Duke University

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Guide to Tableau Visualization Types, from Tableau

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How to choose a chart for your purposes