Create a workbook
Go to Explore or Personal Space if you want to create a personal workbook that is not visible to your team members.
Click the New dropdown menu in the top-left corner and select Workbook.
Connecting to Data Sources
NationBuilder Insights connects directly to data sources from your Nation. Users have access to a wide range of pre-built data sources, including supporter demographics, donation records, engagement metrics, and more.
Once you create a new Workbook, Tableau automatically prompts you to select a pre-built NationBuilder data source.
Select one from the options available or use the search bar to search a datasource in particular.
When you connect to a data source, Tableau organizes the fields into Dimensions and Measures, which appear on the sidebar:
Dimensions (in blue): These fields typically contain qualitative data, such as supporter names, event categories, or regions. Dimensions help categorize and break down data for detailed analysis.
Measures (in green): These fields are quantitative and are used for calculations, such as donation amounts, volunteer hours, or attendance figures. Measures are often aggregated, making them ideal for visualizations involving sums, averages, or counts.
You can transform a Dimension into a Measure and vice versa by dragging and dropping a field to the other area.
Data Blending
Data blending is essential when working with multiple data sources that contain overlapping information. For example, if you’re analyzing supporter engagement data alongside donation data, you can blend these sources on a common field, like Signup ID, allowing Tableau to pull data from both sources simultaneously.
To add a new source to your Workbook, click the New Datasource button in the toolbar.
To add your Primary Data Source, drag fields from the primary data source onto the Rows or Columns shelf. For example, you might drag “city” People Most Common Fields data.
The blue dot that appears on the People data source icon indicates the primary source.
You can now drag fields from the secondary data source onto your visualization as well. For instance, add “amount” from the Finances.
If Tableau doesn’t automatically detect the relationship or if the fields are named differently, you can manually create the relationship. Click on the small link icon next to the desired field in the secondary data source (e.g., “Signup ID” in the Finances data source).
Ensure that the fields used to link the data sources have the same data type. If necessary, edit the data type to ensure compatibility (e.g., both fields should be dimensions or either text or numerical values).
Creating Worksheets
Introduction to Worksheets
Worksheets in Tableau are individual canvases where you create single visualizations. Each worksheet serves as a building block for dashboards, allowing you to design various charts and tables that convey specific data insights. You can create a Worksheet by clicking on the Worksheet icon in the tabs bar.
Adding Data Fields to Worksheets
Columns and Rows
When creating a visualization in Tableau, the Columns and Rows shelves are essential for structuring your data and determining the layout of your charts. These shelves dictate how data is displayed on the worksheet by organizing it into horizontal and vertical axes.
To build a sheet, you drag fields from the Data Pane onto the Columns or Rows shelves.
For example, dragging a dimension like "registered_state" onto the Columns shelf will organize the data horizontally by region, creating a separate column for each unique region value. Similarly, placing a measure like "amount" on the Rows shelf will create a vertical axis that represents the donation amounts for each region.
This forms the foundation of your visualization, with the data distributed across the x-axis (columns) and y-axis (rows).
Adding more fields to the Rows and Columns shelves adds more rows, columns, and panes to the table.
Marks
The Marks Shelf allows you to control the appearance and behavior of data points in your visualization. It provides options to adjust how your data is displayed, giving you the flexibility to fine-tune your chart’s visuals beyond the basic layout of the Columns and Rows shelves.
You can activate the customization elements by dragging and dropping measures and dimensions onto each icon
Color: Assign colors to different categories or data ranges, which makes it easier to differentiate between segments (e.g., assign a different color to each donation tracking code or assign a different nuance of gree to each total amount fundraised per quarter)
Size: Adjust the size of data points or bars based on a measure (e.g., scaling bubbles in a scatter plot by donation amount).
Text: Add labels to your data points, such as showing actual values or percentages on a chart in order to increase visibility
Detail: Break down your data further by adding additional dimensions to the Detail card, which reveals more granular insights without altering the chart layout.
Tooltip: Add custom text and measures or graphs to a tooltip visibel when the viewer hovers the mouse on an element.
Using Filters and Parameters
Filters and Parameters enable interactivity:
Filters: Apply filters to show only specific data subsets. For instance, a filter could allow viewers to display supporters based on different engagement levels.
To add a filter criterion drag a measure onto the Filter shelf:
And select the type of filter you would like to adopt:
Building the Dashboard
Creating a New Dashboard
To create a dashboard go to the Workbook tabs bar menu and select New Dashboard.
And click on the newly created Dashboard tab.
Select from the Size menu the preferred fixed size for your dashboard or select “Automatic” if you want to create a responsive dashboard.
Then drag and drop your sheets in the dashboard area to stack your visualizations
Publishing and Sharing
Publishing to Tableau Server
To make a dashboard accessible to others click on the top-right button Publish As…
Name your dashboard, select a destination folder and hit the Publish button.