Overview
This lecture provides a quick demonstration of Tableau's mapping features to visualize coffee store sales and profit data by U.S. state.
Creating a Map in Tableau
- State is used as the geographical dimension to generate a map showing store locations.
- Double-clicking on 'State' in Tableau adds state-level data points as circles on the map.
- The map can be repositioned or resized using the pan tool.
Visualizing Sales Data
- Double-clicking 'Sales' under measures resizes the map's circles based on total state sales.
- Tableau automatically groups sales into five categories, signaled by the circle sizes.
Adding Profit Information
- Double-clicking 'Profit' changes the color of each circle, where color intensity shows aggregate state profit.
- Circle size continues to indicate sales while color indicates profit.
- Circle color settings can be edited, but this step was skipped in the demo.
Using Tableau's Preconfigured Visualizations
- Removing 'Profit' reverts to a basic map showing circles sized by sales.
- Using the 'Show Me' feature allows selection of a filled map, coloring each state by sales volume.
- The filled map makes it easy to spot top-performing and low-performing states at a glance.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Dimension — A categorical field in Tableau, such as 'State', used to segment data.
- Measure — A numeric field in Tableau, such as 'Sales' or 'Profit', used for quantitative analysis.
- Filled Map — A map visualization where regions are shaded based on data values.
- Show Me — Tableau's menu for selecting different preset visualizations.
- Pan Tool — A map tool used to reposition the view.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Watch the next video for a tutorial on creating a heat map in Tableau.
- Experiment with mapping your own sales and profit data in Tableau.