This article will explore Tableau’s capacity for mobile dashboard visualization, and some tips and best practices for those who wish to create effective dashboards and visualizations that can work on mobile apps.
What is a Mobile Dashboard?
Mobile dashboards provide users with a portable way to keep track of the most pressing data and key performance indicators relevant to their organization. For those who are on the go, mobile dashboards provide easy access to critical metrics, which are available in the palm of their hand. Because of their ease of use and ability to report real-time updates, mobile dashboards are powerful tools for Data Analysts and business professionals, since they display updated data and the visualizations resulting from it.
Before the advent of smartphones, data visualization occurred on desktop devices and was generally delivered through browsers. Once smartphones became widely used, the way data visualizations were created had to change so that they could be easily viewed, navigated, and used on smart devices. Designers were then tasked with creating visualizations capable of functioning on mobile devices with different resolutions, screen sizes, and various lighting conditions.
Using Tableau for Mobile Dashboard Visualizations
Tableau is the leading analytics platform for business intelligence on the market. It allows users to simplify raw data into a format that’s easy to access and understand by those working at any level of an organization. Even non-technical Tableau users can create customized dashboards and worksheets with the help of this versatile tool. Some of Tableau’s most remarkable features include its capacity for data blending, real-time analysis, and data collaboration. It can be installed directly onto one’s hardware from a web download and be operational in just twenty minutes.
With the release of Tableau 10, Tableau began to include support for device layouts and offered some industry-relevant tips for creating data visualizations that work well on mobile devices.
7 Tips for Creating Mobile Dashboard Visualizations in Tableau
Creating an engaging data visualization that conveys the information from large datasets in a way that audience members can understand is no easy task. It’s even more of a challenge to create visualizations that function well on mobile devices with small screens. The following tips are for those looking to make their own mobile dashboards and visualizations in Tableau:
- Decide if you should optimize content for mobile devices. When considering if you need to create a mobile-first design, it’s important to first reach out to stakeholders to get a feel for how they will be reading your reports and keeping track of your web analytics. It’s helpful to know how your audience is viewing your dashboard. Using free web analytics tools like Google Analytics can help supply this information. If you learn that the majority of your audience members are using mobile devices for viewing reports and dashboards, then you can select the most appropriate dashboard dimensions for their mobile device browser size.
- Create a clear user interface. Those who view data visualizations on mobile apps generally see the visualization in the context of its navigation capabilities. That’s why it’s important to display only the bare essentials in graphs geared toward mobile devices. This may mean avoiding features like axis labels or graph titles so that the user experience is straightforward and easy to navigate.
- Use range sizing. Range sizing in Tableau provides an effective way to ensure that the dimensions of your visualization remain intact across devices. Tableau offers flexible range sizing options. Users enter the minimum and maximum heights and widths they are comfortable presenting the dashboard with, then Tableau works to resize the dashboard so that it works on the user’s device. This helps to solve the challenges with portrait/landscape orientation.
- Choose fonts carefully and deliberately. Even fonts that seem to be websafe don’t always translate well from desktop to mobile device layout. That’s why it’s important to check how the final visualization appears on every device to guarantee that the results you expect are the ones you see.
- Optimize controls for touchscreens. Touchscreen controls can be used to add interactivity to various components of a mobile data visualization. Users are able to use touchscreens to click on a chart to reveal supplementary information, zoom in to focus on specific data points, and swipe to the side in order to see the continuation of the graph. The more interactive a graph is, the more engaged audience members are likely to be.
- Design for “bigger fingers.” Those using mobile devices to interact with your dashboard will be doing so with their fingers. This is an important design consideration because peoples’ fingers differ in shape and size. When designing dashboards for mobile devices, it’s necessary, therefore, to make sure that the buttons, functions, and scrolling options are designed to be user-friendly to those with various hand sizes.
- Arrange your dashboard deliberately. It’s a good practice to stack mobile device content vertically when it will be viewed by those using a phone screen or small tablet. This means displaying content vertically unless it’s necessary to show a timeline or wide map. The following hierarchy is a helpful framework for those looking to create vertical mobile device dashboard designs:
- Place the title or any vital metric at the top.
- Stack filters vertically so that they are easier to tap on. Even filters that can fit side by side, it’s better to display them vertically for optimal accessibility.
- View the dashboard, as well as the associated view legend or any additional views.
In addition, take advantage of Tableau’s size controls. There are three sizing options included in Tableau’s Device Designer: default, fit all, and fit width. If you select “fit all,” the content of the objects in the dashboard will automatically adhere to the device’s width and height constraints. Users who need to incorporate several views for phone screens or small tablet devices should select “fit width” because this parameter enables users to vertically scroll to multiple dashboard objects and fit them automatically to the device’s height and width. A “peek” can also be added to a mobile device dashboard display to notify users that additional content is available through scrolling.
Hands-On Data Visualization & Tableau Classes
Do you want to learn how to create stunning and engaging data visualizations, maps, charts, and graphs using the fastest-growing visualization platform on the market? If so, Noble Desktop’s Tableau classes provide a great option. These small group classes are available in-person in NYC, as well as in the live online format. Tableau courses teach students skills like how to spot the most optimal datasets to connect to, as well as how to analyze, filter, structure, and visually represent data.
In addition, a variety of live online Tableau courses are also currently available from top training providers. These interactive classes are taught in real-time and provide all learners with access to an instructor who is live and ready to provide feedback and answer questions. Courses range from seven hours to five days in duration and cost $299-$2,199.
Those who are interested in finding nearby Tableau classes can use Noble’s Tableau Classes Near Me tool. This handy tool provides an easy way to locate and browse more than three dozen of the best Tableau classes currently offered in the in-person and live online formats so that all interested learners can find the course that works best for them. In addition, for those searching for a data visualization class nearby, Noble’s Data Visualization Classes Near Me tool makes it easy to locate and learn more about over 200 courses currently offered in the in-person and live online formats. Class lengths vary from three hours to five months and cost from $119 to $12,995.