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Creating a Data Visualisation in Tableau
tl:dr
In an effort to learn Tableau, I decided to create a dashboard in Tableau showing Team SideOut Polonia Players since 2009
The dashboard I created is pretty basic and I did learn a couple of things like how to organise the raw data but there were a lot more things that I couldn’t quite figure out how to do
I will probably enrol on a Tableau course to get a better understanding of the Tableau basics and I would love to revisit this mini-project and see how much better I can make it
Mini-Project 1: Creating a Dashboard in Tableau
I wanted to take a break from the Google Data Analytics courses to do three mini-projects. They were to create a Tableau dashboard (this blog), do a presentation, and practice using SQL. This is in an effort to properly learn some things I felt I was quickly forgetting. One thing I wanted to get better at is using Tableau. Tableau is a free platform to create and share data visualisations online. So I decided my first mini-project was to create a dashboard in Tableau.
I would love to do an amazing dashboard like those on this link but I am nowhere near that level. So I thought I should start with something simple and basic. You have to walk before you can run. I decided that I would create a dashboard showing Team SideOut Polonia Players since 2009 (see the charts I have previously created). My simple idea was to do two charts. The first is a heat map showing a list of players and the number of matches they played in each season. It would also act like a timeline of when they played. The second chart would show a team list by season. It would have a drop-down menu to select a specific season and the chart would show who played in that season.
The Outcome
Below is a screenshot of the dashboard I created. You can view it on Tableau at this link. In the end, I did create two more charts of most seasons played and most matches played. I thought it needed something else. Although I created what I set out to do, it is a boring dashboard. It is also something I could have easily created in Excel with Pivot charts. However, it was still a good mini-project to do because there were some things that I learned. So what did I learn?
What I Learnt?
Raw Data Layout Matters
I exported and transformed the original data into another spreadsheet. I organised it so I had seasons as the column headers and players in the rows (see above). It looked pretty much how I wanted the Tableau chart I wanted to create, i.e. the bottom left chart in the dashboard. However, when I imported the data into Tableau, I couldn’t create the chart how I wanted. I would put Players in the Rows section (which worked) but when I inserted the 2009-10 data into the column section, it created a bar chart (see below). When I inserted the 2010-11 data, it would simply create a second bar chart.
So what I needed is column data that has season data. I reorganised the data so I had a column for “Year” so I could put that data into the column section in Tableau. So I only had three columns of Name, Year and MP (Matches Played)(see below). This meant I had multiple entries for individual players so the table was long. This transformed data worked a lot better in Tableau and I was able to create the chart I wanted.
Long Extracting TimeWhen you import the data and you move onto the sheets to create the charts, Tableau has to extract the data. On the Google Data Analytics course, this was quick. When I tried it, it was taking so long (it was still extracting at 15 minutes). After a Google search, I learned that it’s pretty normal to take a long time to extract. The Google Data Analytics course used a .csv file to keep the data so I thought I could do the same thing. I saved the Excel file as a .csv file and it worked a treat.
What I Didn’t Learn?
There were a few things that I wanted to do but I couldn’t quite figure it out.
How to Do Several Sorts on Matches Played by SeasonFor the heatmap (bottom left chart), I wanted to sort the data so the players who played in the first season (2009-10) would show up at the top of the table and players who played in the second season (2010-11) would show up next and so on until players that only played in the 2022-23 season would show up at the bottom of the table. This is to make it look more like a timeline. If I was in Excel, I would sort the 2022-23 data first, then the 2021-22 data next and so on until the first season. I tried that in Tableau and it didn’t work. I tried to Google it but I couldn’t see how it could be done.
Showing a Different Team Photo Depending on the Season ChosenFor the team list chart, I wanted to show the team photo of the team selected. This means every season will have a team photo related to that team. I looked up how to do it but I got stuck when there was something I had to do but the function was greyed out so I couldn’t access it.
Line Up the Title Across the Whole Dashboard I wanted the title to go across the whole dashboard and the Most Seasons Played chart and Most Matches Played chart to be the same size (only showing five players at a time). However, when I tried to do it, it just wouldn’t work. I may be able to solve it with more time.
Final Thoughts
The mini-project was a useful exercise to undertake. I got a better understanding of how to use Tableau. However, there were a bunch of things that I didn’t know how to do and I am certain there’s so much more Tableau is capable of. This does make me think that I should enrol on another online course to learn Tableau properly. Once I complete it, I would love to revisit this project to see how much better I can make it. I would love to revisit this project to see how much better I can make it.
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