Evaluate Current State22% of the exam
Chart choice and dashboard design best practices
Turn a stakeholder's question into a Tableau design: classify the question into one of nine chart categories, reshape report-style data so Tableau can aggregate it, and lay out a dashboard by priority, view count, display size, device and highlighting.
Translate analytical requirements into Tableau context by using best practices.
~7 min read · 10 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Classify a stakeholder's question (change over time, correlation, magnitude, deviation, distribution, ranking, part-to-whole, spatial, flow) and recommend the chart forms Tableau lists for it.
- Spot when report-style source data must be reshaped (crosstab columns, subtotal rows) before it can answer the requirement.
- Lay out a dashboard for its purpose and audience: most important view in the upper left, two or three views per dashboard.
- Choose fixed, Range or Automatic sizing and device layouts for the displays the audience uses.
- Keep context with highlighting instead of removing data with filters.
Key terms:
- Chart category: one of the nine kinds of information Tableau maps to chart types.
- Row-oriented data: variables stored in row values under a column, as in a database table.
- Pre-aggregated data: sums, averages, subtotals or grand totals stored in the source.
- Device layout: a desktop, tablet or phone child layout of the Default dashboard.
- Highlighting: coloring related marks and dimming the rest while all marks stay visible.
Key facts
Chart categories on the page
- Detail
- Nine, explicitly not a comprehensive list
Distribution charts
- Detail
- Histograms, population pyramids, Pareto charts, box plots
Deviation significance
- Detail
- Use a Z-score
Data shape Tableau prefers
- Detail
- Granular, row-oriented, no extraneous information
Subtotals and grand totals
- Detail
- Remove from source; use the totals option
Most important view
- Detail
- Occupies or spans the upper-left corner
Views per dashboard
- Detail
- Two or three
Default dashboard size
- Detail
- Fixed size
Add Phone Layouts to New Dashboards
- Detail
- On by default
Desktop and Tablet layouts
- Detail
- Added manually; always independent of Default
- Why does Tableau say its nine chart categories are a starting point rather than a rule?
- When is Tableau Prep needed instead of Desktop's own cleaning?
- Which sizing does a new dashboard use if the author never changes it?
- Which device layouts must an author add manually?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
Keep reading with the Tableau Consultant pack
- Core concepts
- Exam traps
- Worked scenario
The pack includes:
- All 38 lessons of the Tableau Consultant guide, with reading progress
- Interactive decision walks and step-by-step sequence steppers
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