Introduction to Tableau Desktop
Jock D. Mackinlay
[email protected]
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved. Patents pending. Tableau Software, the Tableau
Software logo, Visual Analysis for Databases, and VizQL are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Tableau Software, Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
Databases: A Success Story
1960s: Many approaches
Niche applications
High costs
1970s: Relational databases emerge as a standard
Rows of data organized into normalized tables
High-level query language (SQL)
Support parallel, transactional queries
1980s: Widespread adoption of OLTP technology
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Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Databases: A Success Story
1990s: Data warehousing enables analytic reporting
Dimensional modeling and star schemas
Multidimensional cubes & MDX
2000s: Ad hoc queries become mainstream
Data warehouse appliances
Column stores
In-memory databases
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Visual Interfaces: Another Success
1981: Xerox Star
From www.digibarn.com
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Unified
Need to be able to change both the data and the view:
Traditional Reporting Tools
Query many times and then generate a summary graph.
Visual Analysis
Iteratively change both to find the perfect view.
Traditional Visualization Tools
versus
Query once and then iterate on the presentation of the data.
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
VizQL: Specifies Queries and Views
Compiles into multiple query languages
Generates many view types
VizQL
Query
Data Interpreter
Visual Interpreter
View
Supports an intuitive drag and drop interface
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Cycle of Visual Analysis
An unpredictable and cyclical process of
question-and-answer involving many tasks:
Discovering structure
Finding patterns and outliers
Deriving causal
relationships
etc.
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
The Cycle of Visual Analysis
Data
Modeling
Visual
Analysis
Sharing
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Typical Data
Dimensions
Measures
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
Tableau Demo
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved. Patents pending. Tableau Software, the Tableau
Software logo, Visual Analysis for Databases, and VizQL are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Tableau Software, Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
More Information
Tableau is hiring
Seattle, WA
San Mateo, CA
Help menu in application
Sample workbooks
Links to help topics, community center, and video tours
Web site www.tableausoftware.com
Learning center + training
Community center + support
Database drivers
Email
[email protected]
Copyright 2003-2010 Tableau Software, Incorporated and its licensors.
