Climate Signals is a science information project of Climate Nexus, a non-profit organization under the fiscal sponsorship of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a 501(c)3 organization.
Originally launched in 2010 as an independent project, Climate Signals underwent graphic redesign and content expansion in 2016 as a project of Climate Nexus. Climate Signals is directed by project founder Hunter Cutting. The Climate Signals database is managed by Rose Andreatta.
Graphicacy brought the current version to life, providing the coding, graphic design, branding, and page development, as well as additional feature design.
Highlighting local impacts
Climate change affects us all. Through the use of mapping, Climate Signals identifies and illustrates what climate change looks like on the ground, in your region, state, or neighborhood and specifies the long-term climate trends and physical processes at work.
Cutting through complexity
The relation between individual extreme events and broader climate trends can be very complex.
Climate Signals cuts through that complexity by drawing a line from current events through a hierarchy of signals connected to the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric GHG concentrations. Climate Signals specifies the larger trends and physical processes of climate change that are the context for individual events.
A few years ago, Peter Gorman (photo: above) took a one-year, solo bicycle trip around the U.S. and Canada. he rode over 11,000 miles in one big loop.
After the trip, Peter designed some graphic maps inspired by the places he visited and opened an online shop called Barely Maps.
Since then, his designs have been featured in the Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, SF Gate, Chicago Tribune, and Curbed. Peter lives and works in Seattle, where he designs and prints maps full-time.
Peter recently reached out to me to tell me about his minimalist maps and data visualizations, mostly posted to Reddit, that people responded to really well. Below is his most recent GIF, 100 Historical Lives, through the decades.
Peter has now started creating a book of 100 maps, which he hopes to have completed by the end of next year. Along the way, he will be documenting the whole experience. You can follow his journey on his website and also on Instagram.
Hanukkah, also referred to as the Festival of Lights, began at sunset yesterday. Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days so we will be celebrating, eating latkes, and lighting candles until December 10.
Here is a brief look at the origins of Hanukkah and some of the traditional ways it is celebrated.
Is it Hanukkah or Chanukah?
When I was little and lived in the midwest, it was Chanukah. Now, I live on the West side of the country and it is Hanukkah. Hanukkah appears to be the one most widely used, but Chanukah is more of a favorite with traditionists like me.
Hanukkah means “dedication.”
The Origins of Hanukkah
In 167 B.C., the area known today as Israel was occupied by the Seleucid Empire. The empire at its peak stretched from modern Greece to Iran. The empire practiced Greek religion and forbade Judaism. Some Jews converted to the state religion. A rural Jewish priest, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked a revolt against the empire. When Mattathias died in 166 B.C., his son Judah, known as Judah Maccabee (“the Hammer”), took up the fight.
After two years, the Jews had driven the empire out of Jerusalem. Judah called on his followers to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild its altar and light its gold menorah, whose seven branches represented wisdom, light and divine inspiration and were meant to be kept burning every night.
During that time there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, but the flames continued for eight nights. This wondrous event inspired the Jews to proclaim a yearly eight-day festival.
Latkes – Potato or Cheese
Probably the favorite food eaten during Hanukkah is the latke. Most people are familiar with the potato pancake version of the latke, which is usually fried in olive oil to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah oil.
However, back in the late 1400s, Italian Jews used ricotta fried in olive oil.
Here are a couple of links to both the potato version and the ricotta version for you to make your own and enjoy this tasty food.
Overall, there are 4.2 million adults, or 1.8 percent of the U.S. adult population, who identify as Jewish when asked about their religion. Adding children and Jewish adults who do not identify as such when asked about religion, the total population estimate of Jews in the U.S. is at least 7.2 million.
Josh is the Senior Director of Data Visualization for Comcast’s Enterprise Business Intelligence team. He leads both the Tableau Center of Excellence (COE) and a team of data visualization experts.
Josh is also an adjunct professor of data visualization for Temple University and a co-leader of the Philadelphia Tableau User Group (PhillyTUG).
Questions
Michael: Hi Josh. I really like your Disease-Related Deaths dataviz you have on Tableau Public. Can you tell my readers the steps you follow to take a dataviz from an idea in your head to a finished product?
Josh: When I decide to build a visualization, I start by exploring the data. Once I have a good feeling for the data, I tend to focus on a story or theme and build the visualization around that concept. I’m highly influenced by the community, Pinterest and Dribbble as I think through my designs.
For the Disease-Related Deaths, I had already been struggling for the best way to put Alaska and Hawaii on the map. When I saw FiveThirtyEight’s version, I thought to myself, “I’m going to remake that today!”
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that with a single map, I could turn it into small multiples and that would be even more powerful. However, like most of my work, I like collaborating with friends and the community. When I came across some R code that would build the Albers projection map, I reached out to Jake Riley and he had it back to me as custom shapes a few hours later.
Michael: Can you discuss how you use Tableau at work and in the classes you teach? If applicable, can you tell us how you immerse your business community at work in using Tableau as a self-service analytics tool?
Josh: My focus at work and when teaching with Tableau is about enabling others with Tableau to create great things. That may be drag and drop self-service so that you can answer your own questions on massive data sets without writing SQL or creating actionable and data-driven stories/dashboards.
Data visualization as a skill is useful in a wide variety of tools. Tableau, PowerPoint and PowerBI are just a few, so the underlying skill is the most valuable. Once you understand what you are trying to accomplish, then master the tools at your disposal so that you can implement to the best of your ability.
Michael: Back in 2016, on your blog site, data-ink.com, you posted a blog titled, So You Want a Tableau Data Viz Job? and provide a copy of your presentation on this. Can you discuss what you look for in a candidate for a Tableau Data Viz job and what new skills you would add to this list since you first did this post?
Josh: Generally, I start with a data visualization portfolio to screen candidates. Data Viz jobs usually combine data, design, communication, and presentation, and the portfolio instantly allows me to understand your approach and design style. ‘10 years of BI experience’ on a resume isn’t a good indicator of data visualization mastery or dashboard design expertise.
I personally don’t require the portfolio to showcase a particular tool, but there are certainly considerations as to your support model if you are to hire a D3.js developer over a Tableau expert.
Beyond the portfolio, strong SQL skills and some initial capabilities with either R or Python would be highly valued in most analytical roles.
Michael: In the past, you participated quite a bit in MakeOverMonday. How has doing this helped you in improving your Tableau skills and are you still participating?
Josh: MakeoverMonday gave me an opportunity to practice my skills, try out new techniques and connect with others in the community. I feel that practice and feedback are the two most critical components to getting better at both Tableau and data visualization.
At this point in my career, I find that I’m more focused on finding and developing other people. Now when I have free time, I like to spend it on passion projects, like analyzing Tableau Public statistics.
Michael: Can you tell us three of your favorite Tableau Desktop tips and tricks?
Josh: My top three tips & tricks are:
How to save a high-resolution image on a dashboard (that I just learned from Ramon Martinez): Rename your high-resolution image to include the @2x modifier by using <image-name>@2x<file-extension> format. For example, logo@2x.png.
Adding the formulas of calculated fields to the comments so that they will display when you hover over the field. Great for published data connections!
Using Unicode characters in labels and tooltips.
Michael: Now that you have attended TC18 in New Orleans, can you tell us your three favorite things you learned or attended there?
Josh: My three favorite things from TC18 were:
Chris DeMartini’s D3.jsExtensions
Learning how other enterprise customers are running their COEs and Communities
Tamas Foldi’s photos of his Ford 150s after moving to America
Michael: What is next on your“To Do” list? What can the Tableau community expect to see from you in the near future?
Josh: I’m actually super excited to bring my Tableau Public dashboard (Cerebro) to the next level. If every MakeoverMonday visualization had a consistent hashtag in the description, we could find and highlight all of those visualizations. The same goes for other initiatives like WorkoutWednesday and Viz for Social Good.
I’m hoping to build out a platform to make it easier for people who are seriously time-constrained (like myself) to find amazing content while also helping people get their work noticed.
Source: Brown, Scott, Remembering “Remember Pearl Harbor”, The Orange County Register, December 7, 2011, https://www.ocregister.com/2011/12/07/remembering-remember-pearl-harbor/.
This year, 2018, it has now been 77 years since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt called it “the day that will live in infamy,” and thrust the United States into World War II. Here’s what happened in Pearl Harbor that day.
To create this list, I combine my original list with the list created by Sean Miller on his great website, @HipsterVizNinja. Here is a link to Sean’s website.
If you have a data visualization blog and don’t see it included in my list, please drop me an e-mail at tableau@cox.net and provide me your site link and RSS Feed (if you have one). I will add you to the list.
If you have a data visualization blog and don’t see it included in my list, please drop me an e-mail at tableau@cox.net and provide me your name, site name, site link and RSS Feed (if you have one). I will add you to the list.
Below is a list of features introduced in Tableau v2019.1 Beta 2.
Metadata API – Expose Tableau metadata like never before.
TheMetadata API is read-only, Admin-Only GraphQL API which enables Admins to ask and answer a number of new questions about their Tableau Server ecosystem such as the following:
Field/Column Usage -> What are the fields, formulas, and tables in use?
Impact of Changes -> Would changing or removing this database column have any impact in Tableau workbooks or datasources?
Workbook Lineage -> Which tables from which databases are being used in this workbook or view?
Modification Visibility -> What calculated fields have been created on this particular database column?
Data Source and Workbook Metadata -> What are the fields in this data source? What are their descriptions? For calculations, what are their formulas?
And many more.
Prior to this API, Tableau customers had to do custom XML parsing of Tableau Workbooks and Data Sources to answer these types of questions. Now they can use a simple API to do the same much more easily!
Nested Sort Update
Nested sort was introduced in 2018.2. Tableau has updated it to enable advanced workflow.
Nested sort is the default sort from the toolbar sort buttons
Nested sort (jagged 4-bar sort icon) is shown on the dimension pill with nested sort, similar to “Field” sort, nested sort can be applied to any dimension pill
Sort dialog has been updated to show nested sort in addition to other sort options from before; now nested sort can use a different measure other than that of the viz
When there are dimension pills on both shelves, then any nested sort will apply the filter, which can be removed within sort dialog.
Export to PowerPoint
Now you can export snapshots of Tableau workbooks to PowerPoint from Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server!
Tableau will capture static images from a workbook and export them into PowerPoint. Each tab in the workbook shows up in a separate PowerPoint slide.
A title slide is added to the PowerPoint which contains the name of the workbook as well as a link back to the workbook on Tableau Server. Date and time published is also recorded in the title slide.
The feature respects ‘what you see is what you get’. So any filtering or selection in the viz is reflected in the exported PowerPoint file.
During authoring, users can select a new custom size named PowerPoint (1600×900) that helps them create a viz that would look great in PowerPoint.
Vector Tile Maps
This feature replaces the underlying technology that powers Tableau background maps. With the Vector Tile Maps feature, interacting with background maps in Tableau will feel smooth and fluid. The user will be able to pan, zoom, and otherwise navigate around the map, and background contextual elements will dynamically adapt to the map view. The map now supports continuous zooming so the map will always render crispy, no matter the scale. The background cartography of the map has also been updated.
Other New Features
Cloud File Connectors – Connect and access Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive from within Tableau on the web.
Connect to Google BigQuery – Connect to Google BigQuery from the web.
Extract Encryption at Rest – Enhance your data security with encrypted extracts on Tableau Server.
Help Content Updates – Help Content and navigation has been updated to make finding the information you need even easier.
Tableau Prep Help Update – In Tableau 2019.1, Tableau combined the online help for Tableau Prep and Tableau Prep Conductor.
Support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Distro – Tableau Server on Linux can now be deployed to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS based environments.
Online Admin Insights – Connect to curated datasources of your own site usage.
Web Authoring Improvements – Status bar, edit context filters and more are now on the web.
Azure SQL Data Warehouse Connector – Connect directly to your data stored in Azure SQL Data Warehouse with Tableau’s new connector.
MariaDB Connector – Check out the new plugin connector for MariaDB.
Google Ads Connector – Connect and analyze your ad metrics from Google Ads.
Tableau Bridge Improvements – See the health of your extract refreshes.
Okta Integration Improvements – Better integrate your site with Okta identity management services.
RJ Andrews is a data storyteller. He is the author of Info We Trust: How to inspire the world with data https://amzn.to/2ryc4gf, a lavish adventure exploring how to inspire the world with data. RJ is the creator of https://infowetrust.com where you can enjoy many of his award-winning data stories. When not working on his own projects, RJ helps organizations solve information problems all over the world. Follow him on twitter @infowetrust https://twitter.com/infowetrust
Michael: Hi RJ. First off, congratulations on your forthcoming book, Info We Trust: How to Inspire the World with Data.
Your book is more about the “craft” of data visualization as opposed to a ‘best practices’ or tools book. What does craft mean to you?
RJ: Wiley originally came to me because they were seeking to develop something for their audience to read after learning the best practices.
Best practices are kind of like software defaults, they can get you going, but can’t carry you all the way to do truly great work. The kind of work that not only opens people’s eyes but the kind of work that pushes the craft forward. If best practices could, then we would just program them into a computer and walk away.
Craft is the ability to produce something useful using skill, artistry, and your own two hands.
Further, I have found that best practices are just as easily employed by critics as creators. To really create though you need something more. Info We Trust is built for creators, and that’s why I anchor on the word craft. Craft is the ability to produce something useful using skill, artistry, and your own two hands. That’s what we do! It’s a very human word and helps build connections between us and almost 400 years of statistical visualization.
In that sense, craft is tech-agnostic. The craft is built around principles that connect 1880s Parisians to 2020s Shanghainese. Even though data, cultural norms, and execution technology are very different, people aren’t all that different. Craft also builds connection across all the people participating in this craft.
But I am rarely an absolutist! You may call the craft something else. Perhaps you prefer data visualization, data journalism, dashboard design, or infographic creation. I like data storytelling. The craft waves many banners across various communities. Call it whatever you want.
Michael: Is this book what’s missing from the current library of dataviz books?
RJ: I believe you will be delighted to find that Info We Trust is very different from the current library of dataViz books. Some of its distinguishing features include: It frames the data storyteller as a hero of the information age. It connects our craft to the great saga of civilization. It features insights from a broad field of information arts (think: museum design, storytelling, comics). It elevates timeless principles for creating new ways of looking at the world. It is a beautiful artifact. Info We Trust has over 300 hand-drawn charts, diagrams, maps, and depictions—all illustrated by me just for this book.
Michael: What aspects of dataviz do you most struggle with?
RJ: In some sense, it’s all a struggle. Data storytelling is a multi-disciplinary craft. The consequence of this is that you have to straddle many techniques, tools, practices in order to produce anything. Stats, code, story, data, design… I am not an expert or best at any of these. I do believe I am pretty good at stitching them all together, but at any one moment I’m only engaged in a narrow activity, and I never feel good enough.
One specific aspect of the stitching together—the glue—that is always challenging is deciding what project to execute. Whether it is your own passion project or which client project to engage with. The most power a creative has is to say NO. Data stories take months, sometimes years, to produce. I have more project ideas than I have to time to pursue. I can’t commit to one casually. It’s an important decision!
Michael: My first introduction to your work was your Endangered Species infographic you published several years ago. When I teach internal Tableau classes at work, I always show my students this infographic. Can you tell my readers what inspired you to create this infographic, where you got the data from, and how you designed it?
RJ: Pouring over an old beat-up field guide I found on a dusty shelf in a Kenyan library was the primary inspiration for this work – but it has deep roots. I grew up with ZooBooks, a magazine that featured a different animal in each short issue. Descriptions of animal behavior combined with great pictures and diagrams fascinated me and was one of my earliest introductions to infographics.
Fast-forward 20+ years and I am living in Kenya, within driving distance of some of the most incredible wildlife the world has to offer. I’ve had the great fortune to be able to travel to many Kenya Wildlife Service National Parks and reserves and have been, like most, stunned by the animals. Both the diversity and density of species in many of these parks are amazing, and saddening when I learned that even now the animals are not near the levels where they naturally should be.
The interactive is packed with a ton of information so that, just like I used to spend hours reading and re-reading ZooBooks, you can really settle in and enjoy it for a while. Dimensions used include color (threatened species status), size (animal’s actual relative size), direction facing (population increasing/stable or decreasing), and placement (animal classification).
While not as obvious, animals are positioned close to their relatives. So carnivores are on top, above monkeys and apes, who are above all of the food. Key large animals (elephant, rhino, giraffe, and cape buffalo) anchor each of the corners. Within each of the sections, related animals are also grouped. The lesser kudu is next to the greater kudu, all of the colobus monkeys are together, zebras keep each other company, etc. The threatened species data is from the IUCN Red List.
Michael: You and I are both big fans of the work of Charles Joseph Minard. Can you tell my readers what it is about his work that you find most interesting? Also, besides him being famous for his infographic on Napoleon’s March in the War of 1812, what other works of his are your favorites?
RJ: What stood out to me after assembling a visual catalog of Minard’s work https://infowetrust.com/seeking-minard/ , beyond its surprising volume, is how often Minard returned to the same themes and chart designs year after year, updating his maps as new data became available. Some of these topics held his attention for over 20 years and provide a window into how his craft evolved as he used each data refresh to tweak the design.
Beyond this personal evolution, these series also paint vivid data stories of the different commercial topics Minard was concerned with. These longitudinal visual studies are something Minard was very intentional about. He sometimes included historic predecessors with new charts for easy comparison and annotations that explained why things had shifted. My favorite series from him is on the global cotton trade, a group that culminates in a triptych that (I believe) makes him the first data storyteller. I once produced a video short on this series: https://youtu.be/sQdpQkDGCAU
Michael: Speaking of the Tapestry Conference, you attended this year’s conference last week in Miami. What were the top things you learned from attending the conference?
RJ: This year had the most impressive talks yet, and that’s saying a lot. Our craft, our practice, is growing up fast. I am excited for how far we have advanced, and for how much energy there is to keep getting better.
Michael: What is next on your “To Do” list? What we expect to see from you in the near future?
RJ: My job in 2019 is to continue to share my enthusiasm for the craft of data storytelling, especially via the book, and continue to learn all I can by producing excellent data stories, and keep talking to everyone in the data visualization community.
Chris has an extensive background in data analysis spanning 10 years; initially working in SAS and SQL, he was asked to evaluate an early version of Alteryx 8 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. Empowered by this new technology, and with an advantage over his peers who were using more traditional tools, he quickly developed a reputation from problem-solving and, in his Consultant role at a Global Information Services provider, he helped build out many complex data solutions across a range of industries. As a Development Team Lead, managing three groups of data analysts all using Alteryx, his technical knowledge and training skills were called upon daily as he led the team from the front, advising on innovative approaches to drive down development costs.
The pinnacle
of his career so far came at Alteryx’s Inspire Conference in 2013 where, pitted
against nine other Alteryx super-users, he competed in his first Alteryx
“Grand-Prix”. Despite some stiff competition Chris raced through three business
problems, against the clock, and totaled the best time overall to become the
first Grand Prix winner outside the USA. Chris is also an Alteryx Ace and
Tableau Zen Master.
With Alteryx
adding Tableau to its growing list of Technology Partners, Chris quickly recognized
that they were the perfect combination and quickly set about adding Tableau to
his skill set. Tableau allowed his creativity to shine and meant he no longer
had to compromise when showing off the results of his analysis.
Chris is a
passionate photographer and has sold his work internationally, as well as
having displayed in exhibitions and competitions. He has a passion for the
outdoors and his love of wildlife and nature complements his photography
perfectly.
Interview Questions
Michael: Hi Chris. Can you tell my readers what you do at The Information Lab?
Chris: Hey Michael. My role at The Information Lab (TIL) is an Account Manager, sounds rather dull and boring but essentially I can shape it how I want. I moved into the role a few years ago from consultancy when we were looking to expand our Sales Team. The role essentially consists of looking after a portfolio of customers, helping them be successful with Tableau and Alteryx and connecting them with the experts in the team at TIL. It encompasses everything from quoting and invoicing them to attending demos and delivering training. I don’t think I approach the role like a typical “sales jock” given my background, I’ve been there and implemented these solutions which lends a lot of credibility, it also means I don’t need to drag along anyone technical with me. TIL is a great company to work for because of freedom it affords us, it means I can keep my hand in by helping with customer support questions while also dealing with my day job. It also means I can work from home when I’m not visiting customers, which really helps with family life too.
Michael: A couple of years ago, you posted a blog post, From Data to Insight – Agile Tableau. Can you talk a little about this methodology and its relevance today as we prepare for Tableau v2019.1 and the introduction of Tableau Prep?
Chris: Sure, so this post really came about due to what I perceive as misconceptions that many people have around how to successfully develop dashboards. Many organizations still separate the business from the Tableau “developers” and expect requirements to happen in a single meeting or document. Often our success as consultants is purely about transcending that barrier and communicating with the users. Anyone could do that but many people don’t.
Many organizations still separate the business from the Tableau “developers” and expect requirements to happen in a single meeting or document.
It’s as simple as that, a methodology that
works around communication and iteration. It’s not as written in stone as the
post implies, I don’t guarantee you’ll have a dashboard after 3 days as clearly
it depends what we’re building, but the fundamentals are the same for every
project.
Firstly, you sit in a room, with a PC and work live with the data. Asking questions. Many people come into a meeting like that with a preconception around what they need – we need a bar chart here and a line chart here. It’s important to leave that at the door. “Why” is the most important question you can ask. Why are we building a dashboard? Why do you need to see that figure? Often by digging into why then a very different story emerges. It’s a cliché but asking Why? Three of four times is often necessary before you get to the real need. It’s often very different to what people expect.
Once you’ve sat together and teased out the
details then it’s still important to work closely together over the course of
the main build phase, constantly showing and iterating – “does this do what you
need?”. Co-locating analysts with the business is a key factor here. Too often
analysts are but in a team near IT and they don’t sit with the business. If I
was running a company the first thing I’d do is get the data people out into
the business and co-located.
If I was running a company the first thing I’d do is get the data people out into the business and co-located.
Finally the most important step is to release
something, asap, and see if it gets used and if it helps. Then you can polish
it later.
From a Tableau Prep perspective I can’t see
much changing in the way we work. The difference is that it means we can
quickly pull in different spreadsheets / datasets – the number of meetings I’ve
walked into where the customer has the “data” but you quickly realise it’s in
the wrong format for what you need to do, or spread across multiple files.
As common example is when there’s an events
table, non-data people expect it to be simple to count the open “events” at a
particular time – but in reality it’s not that simple. We need to join to a
date table and create a temporal table. Prep makes that sort of stuff
effortless and means you can do it live in a room.
Michael: On your Sciolistic Ramblings blog, you had an interesting post titled On Conference Etiquette and Poor Talks. TC18 just passed, but I wanted to see if you feel these recommendations still hold true?
Bad talks are the best learning opportunities you have at a tableau Conference. Why walk out?
Chris: Absolutely! Bad talks are the best learning opportunities you have at a Tableau Conference. Why walk out?
But to be honest there’s very few truly bad talks at
TC, more often it’s the fact you haven’t done your homework ahead of time.
At TC, I went to a session I might have been tempted to label as “bad”, it was my fault I didn’t realize how beginner the session was. I could have left when it was obvious where the session was going but I spent the time instead watching avidly and paying attention to the message and content.
How would I do it differently?
What could I add from my experience?
Putting myself in beginner shoes was
this valuable? (Yes)
I came away with some great ideas on a subject I hadn’t
thought about much and as someone who’s often asked to give talks then out of
nowhere I had a 30-40 minute talk I could give to beginners.
We’re all of us at TC in the same boat, we’ll often
be asked to recount our experience to colleagues or TUGs, so even a “bad” talk
can be salvaged. Walking out is just rude!
Michael: Your bio mentions that you are also a photographer. I went out to your photography web site and was really impressed with your work. Can you tell my readers about your passion for photography?
Chris: Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. My passion really sprang out of nowhere – I’ve always been a nature lover and carrying around a camera to record what I saw was a natural extension. Soon the photos were more important than what I saw – and I enjoyed the process, it’s really not unlike data visualization and I talked about it here
It’s a process that like data viz uses both sides of your brain – while I’m a very scientific person who likes to understand the mechanics behind light and F-stops then there’s also the left-side design/art style around composition. That’s the side that no one can teach – that eye for beauty, you really only get that from study great photos (and visualizations) and working out what makes them look good, and then trying to replicate it.
Likewise, there’s no right or wrong, beginners to experts can compete with the same subject and come up with different interpretations. Data visualization has a lot in common with photography.
Michael: Can you tell us three of your favorite Tableau Desktop tips and tricks?
Chris: Oh gosh, I’m really not one for tips and tricks but:
Lookup(attr(Field),0) filters for Table Calcs are a must know for any half decent Tableau User.
Sorting on discrete pills in a header (and hiding the header) – again “must know” stuff
Finally knowing how to build a Sankey is a key skill….. no, I’m joking! My third tip would be how to create a Dimension Selector that doubles as a legend. Ryan Sleeper describes the method really well here.
Michael: Now that you have attended TC18 earlier this year in New Orleans, can you tell us your three favorite things you learned there?
Chris: I spent a lot of time at Tableau Doctor and the Zen Garden this year, as well as preparing for my own talk.
The first thing I learned, or more precisely was reminded of, was just how much work we have to do to educate people on Tableau.
The first thing I learned, or more precisely was
reminded of, was just how much work we have to do to educate people on Tableau.
The questions I had at conference weren’t hard complex questions, they were
amazingly simple. Take this one:
“Our sales guy at Tableau told us Tableau would
be easy to learn, but I just don’t get it – am I missing something”.
Let’s face it – Tableau might be intuitive to some but it’s far from it for others. Teaching people the fundamentals, Blue vs Green – Measures vs Dimensions (if you think they’re the same thing, dear reader, then I’m talking about you), these are the fundamentals – it’s well worth being reminded of that.
We need to spend a lot more time at User Groups and at conference catering for that 80% who haven’t got to grips with Tableau yet.
We need to spend a lot more time at User Groups and at conference catering for that 80% who haven’t got to grips with Tableau yet. The ones for whom Tableau Calcs are a mystery. The ones that Data Art and strange edge cases don’t inspire but remind them that they don’t get it like everyone else.
The second related thing I learn every year is just how small our view of the Tableau world is through the social media lens. I meet countless Tableau staff at the conference, very few understand what a Zen Master is, let alone an Ambassador. Customers even more so, the customers we help at Tableau Doctor have no idea who I am, nor do they care. People might expect Zen Masters to be greeted on every corner at TC by people, instead, the opposite is true. Personally, I find this a very welcome and refreshing reminder that outside the cult of the Tableau Social Media celebrity no one actually cares – instead they just care if you can help them get better at Tableau. Which is all that matters at the end of the day.
The third thing I learned was how little I know about data visualization, trying to sit and judge Iron Viz I found a lot of my judgments and assumptions around what was good analysis and design didn’t agree with some of the judge’s comments and scoring. It’s a very difficult task and one that reminds me just how subjective analysis and data visualization is.
Michael: Speaking of Iron Viz, you recently participated in a BI Bakeoff along the same lines as Iron Viz? Tell us about that experience.
Chris: Well you can read about it in my blog post,
but to summarise it was, in some ways, very
similar to Iron Viz and in some ways very different. If you can imagine Iron
Viz but with three tools instead of one, and each of the competitors competing
in their chosen tool. We had experts from Power BI and Qlik as well as myself
representing Tableau.
I don’t want to repeat what’s in the post and so what I will say is that I think personally I was heavily influenced by Iron Viz. I chose to create a very visually striking visualization (very Iron-viz-esque), given that we were attempting to engage an audience.
I think the result, Qlik won, goes back to my
point earlier – the audience weren’t a crowd of Tableau users, they were real
business execs and what they liked the sight of was what they were used to – a
simple 6 pane dashboard. Not my fancy pants dashboard.
Is there a lesson for us in how us evangelists show and promote Tableau?
Michael: What is next on your “To Do” list? What can the Tableau community expect to see from you in the near future?
Chris: There’s so much I want to do, I have three or four visualizations for the Data Beats project https://medium.com/@databeats I do with Rob Radburn which are half finished.
They’re hard work and I’m not much of a finisher once I’ve
done the analysis and answered the question, so Rob will no doubt be persuading
me to do more.
Everydaydashboards.com continues to grow. How we get more content from real-world dashboards is a challenge, as many companies are unwilling to share. My main plans are to collect together real datasets users can use, as well as practicing different methods of presentation to different audiences
Got a dataset you want to visualise but you're fed up of always visualising the same way? Need practice visualising data in new formats and for different audiences?
Finally, I want to see much more debate around analysis and underlying techniques – how do we know the data we’re looking at is correct? How do we ensure we’re not treating it incorrectly? How do we critique others treatment of the data?
The critique and debate is a key part of our community and
we seem to have lost some of that recently – I’m keen to see how we can bring
it back without putting off newcomers.
So, yesterday and today seem to have evolved into the famous scene in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie starring Charleston Heston, where his character, Astronaut George Taylor, declares the cages and the world surrounding him to be “A madhouse.”
In examing the turnover of the current presidential cabinet and cabinet-level positions to the two preceding administrations run by Presidents Obama and Bush, we have seen far more resignations and dismissals than the prior two administrations. The totals become magnified by President Trump’s tendency to fill new vacancies in his administration with an existing member of his cabinet or White House staff.
Here are comparison charts of the three administrations provided in the source article noted below by Lauren Leatherby in Bloomberg L.P.
Here are head-shots of the people who have left the Trump administration, and those who still remain, in his first two years in the Presidency.
For most of us who have been in the field of Information Technology (IT) for a while, we have either purchased or borrowed a programming book from the O’Reilly library of books. For nearly 40 years, O’Reilly has been partnering with people to bring big ideas to life. From the start of the world wide web to the expansion of open source software, big data and the maker movement, they have continually inspired technology practitioners to do new things—and do things better—by providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success.
O’Reilly’s distinctive book covers are well known to include an animal, insect, or other images to identify a particular topic for a book. In recent years, there have been many parody covers created by creative users to remind us of the topics we struggle with that would probably never really become a book or some topic we curse under our breath.
Below are some parody book covers I wanted to share with you. I found these by doing a Google search on “O’Reilly programming book parody.”
I hope these covers bring a smile to your face today.
Xan Gregg (photo below) posted all of the color scales used in the National Climate Assessment Volumes 1 & 2 on Twitter. I thought these were quite interested and wanted to share them with you. I encourage you to visit Xan on Twitter. Here is his link: https://twitter.com/xangregg
I also encourage you to visit his website, Packed Bars. Mr. Gregg created a website all about packed bar charts, including examples, application, and alternatives.
In today’s blog post, I am showcasing infographics related to the School to Prison Pipeline.
Per their website, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is committed to challenging the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished and pushed out.
“Zero-tolerance” policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while police officers in school lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline.
The ACLU believes that children should be educated, not incarcerated. They are working to challenge numerous policies and practices within public school systems and the juvenile justice system that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline.
For a growing number of students, the path to incarceration includes the “stops” below.
Failing Public Schools
For most students, the pipeline begins with inadequate resources in public schools. Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of qualified teachers, and insufficient funding for “extras” such as counselors, special education services, and even textbooks, lock students into second-rate educational environments. This failure to meet educational needs increases disengagement and dropouts, increasing the risk of later courtinvolvement. Even worse, schools may actually encourage dropouts in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which creates incentives to push out low-performing students to boost overall test scores.
Zero-Tolerance and Other School Discipline
Lacking resources, facing incentives to push out low-performing students, and responding to a handful of highly publicized school shootings, schools have embraced zero-tolerance policies that automatically impose severe punishment regardless of circumstances. Under these policies, students have been expelled for bringing nail clippers or scissors to school. Rates of suspension have increased dramatically in recent years—from 1.7 million in 1974 to 3.1 million in 2000 — and have been most dramatic for children of color.
Overly harsh disciplinary policies push students down the pipeline and into the juvenile justice system. Suspended and expelled children are often left unsupervised and without constructive activities; they also can easily fall behind in their coursework, leading to a greater likelihood of disengagement and drop-outs. All of these factors increase the likelihood of court involvement.
As harsh penalties for minor misbehavior become more pervasive, schools increasingly ignore or bypass due process protections for suspensions and expulsions. The lack of due process is particularly acute for students with special needs, who are disproportionately represented in the pipeline despite the heightened protections afforded to them under law.
Policing School Hallways
Many under-resourced schools become pipeline gateways by placing increased reliance on police rather than teachers and administrators to maintain discipline. Growing numbers of districts employ school resource officers to patrol school hallways, often with little or no training in working with youth. As a result, children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests—the majority of which are for non-violent offenses, such as disruptive behavior—than they were a generation ago. The rise in school-based arrests, the quick¬est route from the classroom to the jailhouse, most directly exemplifies the criminalization of school children.
Disciplinary Alternative Schools
In some jurisdictions, students who have been suspended or expelled have no right to an education at all. In others, they are sent to disciplinary alternative schools.
Growing in number across the country, these shadow systems—sometimes run by private, for-profit companies—are immune from educational accountability standards (such as minimum classroom hours and curriculum requirements) and may fail to provide meaningful educational services to the students who need them the most. As a result, struggling students return to their regular schools unprepared, are permanently locked into inferior educational settings, or are funneled through alternative schools into the juvenile justice system.
Court Involvement and Juvenile Detention
Youth who become involved in the juvenile justice system are often denied procedural protections in the courts; in one state, up to 80% of court-involved children do not have lawyers. Students who commit minor offenses may end up in secured detention if they violate boilerplate probation conditions prohibiting them from activities like missing school or disobeying teachers.
Students pushed along the pipeline find themselves in juvenile detention facilities, many of which provide few, if any, educational services. Students of color — who are far more likely than their white peers to be suspended, expelled, or arrested for the same kind of conduct at school — and those with disabilities are particularly likely to travel down this pipeline.
Though many students are propelled down the pipeline from school to jail, it is difficult for them to make the journey in reverse. Students who enter the juvenile justice system face many barriers to their re-entry into traditional schools. The vast majority of these students never graduate from high school.
No wonder many deemed 2018 as the “year of the teacher.”
And these implications will stretch far beyond the new year. Take a look at some of the most significant research findings related to teachers that were published in 2018.
Chart #1: More Than Half of Teachers Are Not Satisfied With Their Salaries
Fifty-five percent of teachers said they are not satisfied with their teaching salary, according to data from the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education.
The national average public school teacher salary for 2016-17 was $59,660, according to data from the National Education Association (NEA). (The NEA estimated that the average salary for the 2017-18 school year is $60,483.) But this varies widely between states.
And teachers who are not satisfied with their paychecks are more likely to say their enthusiasm is waning, they’d consider leaving the profession for a higher-paying job, and the stress and disappointments of teaching “aren’t really worth it.”
Chart #2: Teachers Say Salary Is Key to Recruitment and Retention
The Education Week Research Center conducted a nationally representative survey of more than 500 K-12 teachers and asked what districts should do differently to find and hire high-quality teachers. The No. 1 answer was to improve pay and benefits, followed by offering more professional autonomy, greater respect, and better working conditions.
But when asked what keeps teachers in their current jobs, 18 percent said leadership is a key factor, while 17 percent cited salary considerations.
Chart #3: The Public Thinks Teachers Should Be Paid More, Too
After the widescale teacher walkouts that protested low wages, the public is more in favor of raising teacher pay. A nationally representative survey from the journal, Education Next, found that nearly half of those provided with information on average teacher salaries in their State said the pay should increase. That’s 13 percent higher than last year, and the largest change in opinion that Education Next saw on any single policy from last year.
Chart #4: Parents Don’t Want Their Children to Become Teachers
A growing number of parents of school-aged children said they have trust and confidence in public school teachers. But just over half of parents said they would not want their child to become a teacher, according to the PDK International poll on education.
“I feel like there’s a narrative that has been created about public schools in our country that is not helpful,” said Joshua Starr, the CEO of PDK International. “We can’t have it both ways. You can’t say, ‘Yeah, education is great, but I don’t want my kid to become a teacher.’ … It’s problematic for our country.”
Chart #5: Teachers’ Pension Debt Is a Growing National Crisis
Teachers’ pension debt today tops out nationally at more than $516 billion, and some states project they won’t have enough money within the next decade to pay teachers what they’re owed at retirement.
But pension reform is a politically volatile issue: Just look at Kentucky, where a reform bill sparked teacher walkouts and protests (and was struck down by the state’s high court in December). Stay tuned to see how—or if—States tackle their pension crises in 2019.
Chart #6: Record Waves of Teachers Ran for Office This Year
Scores of teachers ran for political office this year, with many fired up because of the walkouts. Education Weekcounted nearly 180 current K-12 teachers who ran for their state legislatures.
NOTE: Since the chart above was created, one more teacher—a Democrat in Illinois—was elected in a closely contested race. The total count is now 43 teachers who have won state seats.
Chart #7: More Teachers Could Drop Out of Their Unions After Supreme Court Blow
After the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed, President Donald Trump suggested arming about 20 percent of the nation’s teachers. He also suggested that educators who agree to carry guns should get bonuses.
It was a controversial debate that was widely unpopular among teachers. (It’s worth noting that this isn’t purely hypothetical: In certain places, teachers who have received training are allowed to carry guns at school.)
Chart #9: Teachers Are Not Sold on High-Stakes Evaluations
“This suggests that focusing on [teacher effectiveness] alone is not likely to be the potent sort of intervention that really moves the needle on student outcomes,” said Brian Stetcher, the lead author of the report.
Chart #10: Teachers Are Not Immune to Sexual Harassment and Assault in the Workplace
Even though the education field is dominated by women, teachers told Education Week stories of permissive school cultures where abusers are not punished and about the threat of power differentials between novice teachers and their superiors.
“What has struck me most in my reporting, and what I found the most heartbreaking, was how desperately some teachers we spoke with wanted to share their stories because they wanted to make their workplaces safer and their professions better,” reporter Arianna Prothero wrote. “But they weren’t convinced that their small stand would ultimately make a difference. And in weighing that against the risk to their livelihoods, they decided to remain silent. I can’t tell you their names or their stories. All I can tell you is that they exist, and they are surviving.”
I wanted to share these DataViz cookies from Dr. Sarah Supp (@srsupp) that were the inspiration for Kelly Gilbert (@kelly_gilbert) to create her version of DataViz cookies.
We need to have a DataViz cookie contest at TC19, I think!
Climate Signals is a science information project of Climate Nexus, a non-profit organization under the fiscal sponsorship of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a 501(c)3 organization.
Graphicacy brought the current version to life, providing the coding, graphic design, branding, and page development, as well as additional feature design.
