Five tips to enhance a tableau model with usability features.

In the previous blogs I was more focused in Power BI since i work with it day to day, but this time we are going to dig into increasing the usability features of tableau. This blog revolves around the end-user simplicity, if a model is hard to comprehend then it will be a disaster, so we should deploy some means to stay simple. So without further ado lets head on to the first topic of the day.

Configuring table and column properties.

A model can consist of many tables but the important fact is they have to be unique and it is better if we can have a table description to elaborate on whats it about. This can be also considered as an internal documentation, when a project member is changed it is easy to pick up and continue.

We use connections to load data for the tables and we have a connection name for it but once if we set the source it cannot be changed in the latter part, so be mindful because once you are dropping a connection you are losing all the tables associated with it.

It is also a good practice to hide the tables that the users are not likely to view such as key columns, intermediary tables and metadata tables. The hidden tables are not available for client reporting tools.

“Hiding a table doesn’t provide any mean of security even though the table is hidden you can refer that using a DAX measure”

Creating date table

Data type matters in storage efficiency, usually integer data type can compress and save much larger data comparing to the text data type, so we need to be mindful when creating date table and should use appropriate data types.

Date tables can be created using DAX time intelligence functions and you can refer the following link to see how to create one. This can be used as a dimension table for handling date related requirements.

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4857/creating-a-date-dimension-table-in-power-bi/

It is a good practice to have one row per date, in order to eliminate the anomalies arise when having multiples. Also at least one column should have a data type set as date in order to use DAX  time intelligence functions.

If our company calendar year starts from April we can have that as fiscal calendar and the normal calendar data as calendar date values. So we can use the abbreviation such as 2017FY, 2017CY to differentiate them.

Creating hierarchy.

In my previous blog I have already talked about creating hierarchy and the uses of a hierarchy, you can refer that for further clarifications.

https://ajan93bi.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-way-of-doing-7-ragged-hierarchy-in.html

Simply hierarchies are use full in interpreting and visualizing data. This increases the usability and it adds more features in navigating to smaller subsets. For an example if a customer wants to view data year wise and then drill down to view monthly data.

Creating Perspective.

This is simply creating a subset of a model to eliminate complexity, this doesn’t provide any sort of security and also not supported by standard edition of visual studio. Perspective is very useful if we have a lot of users, for an example in a company the HR department doesn’t require the finance details and finance department doesn’t require the HR details, so it is easier when perspectives are created with relevant tables and columns and provided to end users as what they really require, this provides simplicity.

Creating translation.

Translations allow to view the data in preferred language, we can use this localization to increase the usability for end users using different languages.Translation can be used in models and following are some of the important factors where we can apply translations.

1.       Model

2.       Table and Columns

3.       Hierarchy

4.       Measures

5.       KPIs

This allows the large variety of end users to interact with our model.

We can create translation files by getting an empty translation JSON file and editing and having relevant changes.

Following steps can be followed in visual studio to reach localization.

"Model"-"Translation"-"Manage Translation"

This concludes the tips, so stay focused on 

1. What you are doing? 
2. Why you are doing? 
3. For whom you are doing?

If these questions have clear answers then you are going in the right path, my paper work will assist you to find the answer for the third one. Now you will be able to provide a very user friendly model for your end users by being handy with these tips.