Top 10 Worst Tableau Designer Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

In this section we'll discuss the importance of having an initial plan so that you know what you're trying to achieve. The mistake I see many make is that before having a plan they start processing and cleaning data not knowing exactly what they want to achieve or if its even what the client wants.

Instead of doing valuable work I see them just playing with data not knowing what the ends state is. They end up going around in circles.

Having a simple one-page plan so that you know what you're aiming for is crucial in development but also in communication. If you work in a team, it means you can easily communicate using a simple document of what you're striving for. 

This video will discuss the importance of understanding your problem in detail. What are you trying to solve? Why are you solving it? Who are you solving it for? How much time do you have? What's your budget? How much data needs cleaning? How long will it take?

These are the questions that run through my mind when I'm proposed a problem. My goal is to understand exactly what I'm trying to solve and for who. All the while factoring in the project logistics and how I'll be delivering the project.

What does your finished product look like? What does the dashboard look like? 

Having a realistic end goal picture is crucial in knowing where you're going. Sometimes people just play with the data continuously not knowing what they're trying to achieve.

Instead, what I recommend is actually drawing what the finished product looks like. Doesn't have to be a work of art but it should at least have the core concept of what you're trying to achieve. This will help you remain focus and determine what is relevant or irrelevant to your build. 

Many beginners worry about publishing a dashboard that isn't quite ready yet. Or dashboards that aren't yet formatted. But this is the opposite of what you should be doing.

Especially in project work, you want to ensure you're building to specifications of your client. The best way to get that alignment is to publish and show them as often as possible. This gives the the opportunity to find any mistakes or inconsistencies early so that they don't severely impact you later in the development.

This is one of the weirdest topics or concepts to understand and implement. Mainly because its a personal thing of how you interact with people. How you're perceived.

I always try and approach from a "this is a prototype version, please let me know if its wrong". This encourages others to find error so we can fix it. The problem is that a lot of the time, people are too nice to tell you if its wrong for fear of hurting your feelings.

On the flip side, if you go in saying "its correct cause I did it", (maybe not in those words) and it turns out to be wrong your credibility goes down. Funnily your credibility has an impact of how the results are perceived. If you have a reputation for high quality work, then when people see the results they're more trusting of the data.

On the other hand, if you are constantly publishing poor or incorrect results you can almost be guaranteed that even though the data is right, people will be apprehensive on acting on it.

Therefore, protect your credibility at all costs by being honest at all times.

Beginners I see do this a lot. They love filters and so do I!

The problem with filters is that a lot of the time they take up a lot of space but don't add value. Instead, in this video I'll show you how to transform your filter dashboard into something more of an insights tool. This will not only make it easier from a design point of but also easier for users as they don't have to filter. Instead, by virtue of them clicking, the filtering happens in the background. They don't even have to think about it.

Also, this kind of design really encourages insight and investigation as the graphics themselves will lead the way for investigation.   

This topic is pretty fun! The use of not only colour but contrast as well is important so that when users read your data, they don't misinterpret the results. This can be as simple as missing a dot on a scatter plot because you can't see it very well. There's a clever technique I use so that I can determine what the best colour contrasting I should be.

This is more of an art form than it is a technique. Story telling is about conveying a story or a point to an audience and having it easy to follow. This can be done by simplifying what you're presenting or breaking it up into the sections. Remember, in a lot of cases where you're presenting to senior management they won't be data people. So you have to break it down and keep it simple to follow.

I am completely guilty of this and it's usually my excitement that gets the better of me. Sometimes we'll receive data and before doing the planning phase and building in stages, we'll rush straight into design. For me, its because I can see the data and just want to get into to it right away.

Unfortunately, if you're designer presenting to non-designers, they won't process data as fast or the way you do. So as nice as it is to have a final solution so quickly, its probably a bad idea.

Remember, for people to act on your data, they need to be able to trust it. This means seeing its development and growth over time so they know that what you've done is right.   

This is one of my biggest hates in Tableau when I see it but I also understand why. We've used Excel for so many years and decades that tables are just what we're used to. Tableau is not a spreadsheet tool, its a visualisation tool.

In this video I'll show you my steps on how to transform from tables to visualisations that are useful for further insights analysis.