Building your dashboard

Continue following these steps to build the dashboard:

Successively, Double-click each sheet listed in the Dashboard section on the left in turn: Sales by Department, Sales over time, and Sales by Postal Code. Notice that double-clicking the object adds it to the layout of the dashboard.

When a worksheet is first added to a dashboard, any legends, filters, or parameters that were visible in the worksheet view will be added to the dashboard. If you wish to add them at later point, select the sheet in the dashboard and click the little drop-down caret in the upper-right corner. Nearly every object has a drop down caret, providing many options for fine-tuning appearance and controlling behavior. Take note of the various UI elements that become visible for selected objects on the dashboard, as shown:

Add a title to the dashboard by checking Show Title in the lower-left corner of the sidebar. Make sure nothing is selected in the dashboard (such as a view or legend), otherwise the Show Title checkbox will likely apply to the selection. If necessary, click in a gray area off of the dashboard or a blank area in the left sidebar to clear any objects selections. You may edit the title by double-clicking it.
Select the Sales by Department sheet in the dashboard and click on the drop-down caret in the upper-right corner. Navigate to Fit | Entire View. The fit options describe how the visualization should fill any available space.

Be careful when using various fit options. If you are using a dashboard with a size that has not been fixed, or if your view dynamically changes the number of items displayed based on interactivity, then what might have once looked good might not fit the view nearly as well.

Select the Sales size legend by clicking on it. Use the remove UI element to remove the legend from the dashboard.
Select the Profit color legend by clicking on it. Use the grip to drag the legend and place it under the map.

For each view, Sales by Department, Sales by Postal Code, and Sales over time select the view by clicking an empty area in the view. Then click on the use as filter UI element to make that view an interactive filter for the dashboard. Your dashboard should look similar to this:

Take a moment to interact with your dashboard. Click on the various marks, such as the bars, states, and points of the line. Notice that each selection filters the rest of the dashboard. Clicking on a selected mark will deselect it and clear the filter. Notice that selecting marks in multiple views cause filters to work together. For example, selecting the bar for Furniture in Sales by Department and 2016 Q4 in Sales over time, allows you to see all the postal codes that had furniture sales in the last quarter of 2016:

You have now created a dashboard that allows for interactive analysis. As an analyst for the Superstore chain, your visualizations allowed you to explore and analyze the data. The dashboard you created can be shared with management as a tool to help them see and understand the data in order to make better decisions. When a manager selects the Furniture department, it immediately becomes obvious that there are locations where sales are quite high but are actually making a loss. This may lead to decisions such as a change in marketing or a new sales focus for that location. Most likely it will require additional analysis to determine the best course of action. In that case, Tableau will empower you to continue the cycle of discovery, analysis, and storytelling.

Table of Contents for Building your dashboard

Create new playlist

Sign In

Sign Up

Table of Contents for
Building your dashboard