The dashboard interface is similar to the worksheet workspace in many ways. In the following screenshot, we have identified its several key areas.
Like the worksheet view, the dashboard has the following elements:
- The menus and toolbar, which are placed horizontally across the top of the page
- The Dashboard pane on the left, where you can determine the exact composition of your dashboard
- The canvas, where you will drag worksheets and other visual elements
We have numbered the elements on the dashboard, as shown in the following screenshot. They are as follows:
- A list of worksheets (1) that have not been hidden and which are sorted according to the order in which they are arranged in your workbook
- Containers and objects (2) that can be dragged onto your dashboard to increase the integrity of the design
- A controller (3) for new objects
- A hierarchy of dashboard objects (4) that can be used for navigation
- A controller (5) for the dashboard size
- The canvas (6) where you will compose the dashboard
If you are creating a new dashboard, the canvas will be blank. If you open an existing dashboard, the various existing dashboard elements will be displayed on the canvas. The following screenshot shows the dashboard interfaces:
It's important to keep in mind the purpose of your dashboard. We are building a dashboard that tells the story of carbon dioxide emissions over time. The dashboard should allow users to navigate to the areas of interest and then understand the factors of consumption.
The dashboard will have the following key elements, which were previously discussed:
- Title, so that our users know what they are viewing
- At least one visualization with data and proper context is required so that different data points relate to each other and to the user
- A call to action (conclusion) is also needed so that users know how to explore the details within the dashboard or go to another web page
In order to build this dashboard, we will start with a single visualization, which is the visualization with summary data in this case. Drag a sheet onto the canvas by hovering over the visualization that you want to add, pressing the left mouse button, and dragging it onto the canvas, as depicted in the following screenshot. You can also double-click on the worksheet name.
If you wish to remove a worksheet from the dashboard, click on the title of the visualization until a grey container bar appears at the top border of the visualization. Then, right-click on the grey bar. Select Remove from Dashboard from the shortcut menu:
The result, as shown in the following screenshot, shows the map that we created. This map shows the CO2 emissions per capita in 2008, which was taken from the World Bank official website. Each country is colored by its relative percentile in the data set, and the label shows the CO2 emissions per capita.
However, users don't know all of that yet:
Tableau Public automatically added the following two elements:
- The worksheet name as the title
- The color legend in a vertical layout container to the right
In order to compose an empathetically designed user experience with proper context, we need to use layout containers to rearrange the dashboard and create a flow of both navigation and information, that is, a data story. The next section discusses layout objects, and we will show examples of how to use them.
Tableau Public has several different layout objects that you can add to your dashboard to control the composition.
Objects are versatile, and you can use them to reflect the overall theme of your graphic composition. From the context menu of an object, you can perform the following tasks:
- Format it with borders and background colors
- Remove it
- Set it as a floating or tiled object
- Deselect it
- Remove it from the dashboard
You can set the height and width attributes for floating objects, just like you can for worksheets that you have added (and for the dashboard as a whole, which is highly encouraged).
The following objects can be added to your dashboard:
- Horizontal layout containers: You can drag worksheets that you want next to each other into these containers.
- Vertical layout containers: You can drag other objects and worksheets that you want to stack from top to bottom into these containers.
- Text objects: These can be used to add titles and calls to action. Though you can't add field tokens to text objects, you can add parameter tokens, which will be discussed in depth in the next chapter.
- Images: You can use these to browse logos or branding elements that add richness to your dashboard. You can also use images as links to web pages, since each image can have a URL attribute.
- Web page objects: These can be used to add content from the Internet. You can even create dynamic content, which will be covered in the next chapter too.
- Blank objects: These objects can be used to control space. Blank containers are transparent. So, the background colors that you are using will show through them.
Note
In the section of the dashboard pane that says New objects, the default object is set to Tiled. You should leave it there until you are comfortable with dashboard design. Each new object that you add to your dashboard will have this setting, and though you can easily change the attribute for individual sheets on a dashboard, it's best to keep things simple in the beginning. The Tiled automatically aligns objects to the dashboard grid, and floating adds new objects to the dashboard that are detached from the dashboard grid.
When you add objects, like worksheets, into a horizontal or vertical layout container, the widths and heights of the objects will be sized automatically, unless you specify otherwise. In case you're using actions, which will be discussed in the next chapter, it's particularly useful to use containers for sizing automatically.