Tableau Workshop, Programs to Use for DV, and DV Prompt (30-45 min)
- There is a great overview video you can click in the upper right hand corner (see below picture), along with several other tutorial videos that are helpful.
- To open a file, go to the left panel under “Connect” and choose a file type for the dataset you want to open (NOTE: a csv file is a type of text file, so select “text” if you want to upload a csv file. Alternatively, you could convert a csv file to an Excel file–an xlsx file–and do Excel). For this practice round, download the flood data from 1985-2010 collected by the Dartmouth Flood Observatory on CourseWeb and in Course Documents–more information on this can be found here about this dataset on floods.
- Drag the sheet you want to work with to the appropriate panel in the top middle. In the bottom middle, the columns and rows will populate. (NOTE: if you are working with a csv file, there is only one sheet, so you just need to select the only sheet that is there–an Excel xlsx file can have multiple sheets). For the flood data, that would be the “Master Table” sheet.
- You will now be in the “Data Source” tab. The other tabs are “Worksheet” (default is called “Sheet 1”), “Dashboard,” and “Story,” in that order at the bottom left (Sheet 1 is there by default, you’ll have to click on the respective other buttons to make more worksheets, to make a dashboard, and to make a story). The Data Source tab functions basically like a set of rows and columns and you can manipulate your data here (e.g., changing column titles).
- So you want to get out of here? What do you do!?! You can go back to the start page by clicking on the Tableau symbol in the upper left-hand corner (see image below).
- The “Worksheet” tab (default = Sheet 1) is a place to mess around with the kinds of visualizations you can make. Go to the “Dimensions” on the left side and pick a category to drag to the center of the sheet. For instance, in our sample data for today, if you drag “country” to the center, it will give you a map of all the places where a flood occurred.
- You can do cool things with the Measures, too. For instance, drag “Duration in Days” to the center of the sheet. What happens? You can try other measures, too. If you add a second measure, it will create a second visualization. You can remove one of the measures by dragging it back to the left column. Go here to learn more about the variables to understand what these measures mean in regard to the floods.
- You can also drag dimensions and measures onto the various tiles to change the colors, sizes, add labels, etc. to various datapoints in your visualization.
- When you drag a measure or dimension over, you might want to change it. E.g., you might want the count rather than the sum or you might want the day instead of the year (if available). Click on the icon and it brings up a menu bar, go to measure and you can change the measure to what you want (in the picture, it is on “count”):
- If you want to create a different chart, you can add a new worksheet at the bottom left by clicking the left-most icon (see image in #4 of this list). For instance, you could drag “Country” to the column section and “Total Annual Flood M>6” to the row section of the worksheet to make a bar chart.
- If working with multiple worksheets, it is definitely a good idea to rename the worksheets so they aren’t Sheet 1, Sheet 2, etc. Easier to remember what is what that way. To rename, just doubleclick the worksheet tab at bottom left and it will let you rename it (functions the same as Excel tabs in that way).
- You will want to create a Dashboard, as well, if you want to combine charts. Click the middle icon in the bottom left (see image in item #4 of this list) to create a Dashboard.
- What is great about a Dashboard is that you can use the filter function as a way to interact between pieces. For instance, in our example, if we drag the map to the top half and the bar chart to the bottom half, and then click on the filter symbol in the top right (see image), we can click on any dot in the country map to get the bar chart to filter to show us how many m>6 floods it had. Clicking on the same marker will reset the view.
- You can add titles, annotations, webpages, etc. to the visualization in the Dashboard by going to the bottom left menu under “Objects.”
- As you go, make sure you save. Click “File” and “Save as Tableau Public” to save first version. You’ll need to log in with your username and password to save.
- If it looks good to you as a webpage, you can click “Share” at the bottom right of the image. This will open up a link or HTML code you can embed into a website.
Activity: Try to upload one of the datasets you have worked with so far in class. Let’s have some unstructured play–mess around, see what you can do. Be sure to save anything that you think is pretty cool.
If interested, you could get access to a more souped up version of Tableau for free through Pitt…you have to wait “5-7 business days” for them to get back to you (womp). I haven’t messed around with it yet, but I’m sure there are cool things you can do there.
If this is something you want to work with, you could use the hyperlink when saving the visualization and link it within your text OR you could make a website using a WYSIWYG website builder (e.g., Wix, Weebly, WordPress) to put up, say, your public writing project online and to have the data visualization embedded right in the site. See “WFP Resources” linked a the top of this page or elsewhere in the Writing With Data website for more on how to use a WYSIWYG website builder.
What other programs can you use?
Well, as discussed on 8/29, there is a lot you can do with Excel (specifically, this is the link on making charts in Excel) and you can use Jupyter Notebook 1 from earlier in the term (and some of the other JNs).
But I’ve seen a lot of cool visualizations from you all already, and I know you used various programs. So, what have you used? Let’s list them all up. If time, let’s group up based on something you are interested in or sharing best practices on something you use in common with someone else.
To just make images, there is a TON you can do just with PowerPoint. You can also make simple (but cleanly designed) tables in PowerPoint
Photoshop and InDesign area also great programs from Adobe and you can do some solid stuff in Microsoft Publisher, as well.
Gephi is also something I have used in the past, but that was a number of years ago, so it might be very different now. That is free software.
You can also try your hand at Python or other programming languages that might have ways to support visualizations of various kinds if you enjoy or have experience with programming (or want to learn more).
Finally, if you have Android/Chromebook: You can use https://datastudio.google.com/navigation/datasources for some data visualizing (and other analytical/communicative tools) there.
Moral of story: Smash your head against some tech, and it is hard until it isn’t!
Data Visualization Assignment Prompt (5 min)
-Go to CourseWeb, Course Documents, and then to Assignment Prompts to download the assignment prompt for the Data Visualization assignment.
Peer Response for Draft (20 min)
PROCESS:
- First person reads there paper aloud.
- While reading aloud, listener silently takes notes on elements that are really effective and elements they think could use more work. The listener also has specific reasons why they feel that way.
- Also, while reading aloud, the author is encouraged to pause to take notes about things they noticed.
- After author is done reading aloud, the listener repeats back to the author what they think the general story or argument of the piece is (i.e., the “big picture”).
- The author and listener discuss how much or little this impression aligns with the author’s view of the “big picture” of the piece.
- Then, the listener discusses the “effective” things and the “work on in revision things” they noticed. The author responds and takes notes.
- They check in for next steps the author will take based on discussion.
- Switch roles and repeat #1-7.
NOTE: Don’t be a jerk! Consider how you would like to hear feedback. That being said, don’t be too general and non-confrontational either…constructive criticism!
Thursday, November 21 (2-5 min)
I can’t be in class on 11/21 because I have an interview that day (I tried to get another day, but this was the only day that worked for them).
I’m bummed about that, because I wanted to use our time on 11/21 to catch up and get ready for the final push after the break.
If I can’t switch the guest speakers to 11/21 from 11/19, here are our options:
- Class is cancelled.
- Class is on and I’ll have a sub come in. The sub would lead a peer response activity in which you all would bring in some in-progress writing to get some feedback. This would be your in-progress final draft of the sci/tech writing project, the in-progress data visualization, and the in-progress experiential learning document (we will talk more about this last thing next week).
Regardless of the option we choose, I am going to make myself extra-available the week of 11/18 (and before that, as needed) in case you need some help with anything. I am happy to meet with you on your work, no matter what. So, if something is on your mind, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Next Time
–Collections as Data folks will be coming to lead their workshop on some hands-on data visualization
-Work on projects