Why craft self-made Tableau projects?

3 min readJun 14, 2021

Few days back, I came across a dataset from the Tableau site on Global Library Statistics. The dataset includes details like total library infrastructure investment by countries in 2016 and the stats regarding the number of libraries, users, librarians etcetera. The initial objective was to construe a simple single view infographic. But then on someone’s suggestion, I started analyzing the impact of investment in library infrastructure on countries’ GDP. Because how you present the data is important but what you do with the data is more so.

This led the project into a completely different direction, which proved very beneficial for a novice like me. My learning increased exponentially. I can count up to 15 tableau tricks, functionality and technicalities that I learnt on the project — some on my own and others with the help of Tableau experts and vast knowledge base available on the web. Of course, by the end I didn’t implement all — the project workflow was somewhat ad hoc — think of an idea, try to implement it, research if you can’t do it and see if the solution is fitting in the bigger scheme of things. After all, this was purely about learning.

Though miniscule, I did something nobody told me about before. Without referring to any web resources of which I’m sure there will be many, I was able to create charts dynamically (Refer Fig 1). I knew for sure that I was definitely learning and exploring something different.

Fig 1: Screenshot of the project (PC: Image by Author)

But can I say that this led me to develop the project to the high standards we follow on Tableau public?

No, but I gained a better command on Tableau which will pay off on future projects. The built up in confidence and the dopamine rush were enough to make my day.

So here I am, signing off and saying that constantly experimenting with new features makes one a better professional.

Here is the list of web resources of the things that I learnt on this self-carved project ride, which you may or may not find useful.

Dynamically change your drop-downs — The Flerlage Twins

https://www.flerlagetwins.com/2020/10/dynamically-change-your-drop-down-menus.html

Tableau Calc Functions — Tableau Website

https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/functions_functions_tablecalculation.htm

How to Filter a dimension and maintain the rank — Andy Kriebel

https://www.vizwiz.com/2018/10/rank-filter.html

Sheet Swapping UX with Parameter Actions — Keith Dykstra

https://interworks.com/blog/kdykstra/2019/07/19/improving-the-sheet-swapping-ux-with-parameter-actions-in-tableau-part-1/

Chart Swap with Buttons — Kevin FlerLage

https://www.flerlagetwins.com/2019/05/playing-with-parameter-actions-tableau_18.html