My favorite Tableau visualizations

Mapbox
maps for developers
4 min readJan 24, 2018

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By: Allan Walker

I’ve been using Tableau since 2013, and during that time I’ve seen some awesome data-driven maps used in dashboards. With Tableau and Mapbox, we’re able to bring additional geographic context to our maps, render massive amounts of data, and make that data interactive.

Here are just a few of my favorite collaborations, and some dashboards suggested by the Tableau Community on Twitter:

100,000 NYC taxi trips

Tableau 8.2 was a major technical breakthrough — the first 64 Bit version — it gave users the capability to plot massive amounts of data and share up to 1 million rows on Tableau Public. This allowed us to create this visualization mapping 100,000 taxi routes in NYC.

Tableau Dashboard of 100,000 taxi routes in NYC. Click through image to see more.
Left: Animated Tableau Dashboard showing Taxi shortest path routing | Right: Animated Tableau Dashboard with near neighbor points of interest

- By Allan Walker, Anya A’Hearn & Noah Salvaterra.

100,000 aircraft flights

This data visualization was made possible when Tableau (version 9.2) first integrated Mapbox Studio styles. Anya A’Hearn designed the custom map style, and Joe Mako wrote an Alteryx workflow that scheduled the download and parsing of the ADS-B JSON data into Tableau.

Tableau Dashboard with custom Mapbox Studio style. Click through image to see full-screen map.
Animated Tableau Dashboard tracking aircraft with airport metrics

- By Allan Walker, Anya A’Hearn & Joe Mako

Wargames

Here are the nuclear missile sites and paths of the world’s nuclear arsenal, inspired by the 1983 film “Wargames.” The map uses a custom polar projection and incorporates Great Arcs, which allows us to visualize the trajectories from launch to targets.

Tableau Dashboard with custom Mapbox Studio polar projection style. Click through image to see full map
Left: NATO v Warsaw Pact Wargames | Right: Nuclear MAD-ness

- By Allan Walker, Anya A’Hearn & Chris DeMartini

It might be a “stinky” subject matter; but Jeff uses a bar chart, small multiple line charts, a detailed data-driven map and a retina-popping, neon-effect color palette to make this a beautiful and insightful dashboard!

Tableau Dashboard visualizing a week of trash routes in Cincinnati, Ohio
Animated Tableau Dashboard of trash collection in Cincinnati.

- By Jeffrey Shaffer

Reported UFO sightings

I want to believe…that this Tableau Dashboard would look great on Agent Scully and Mulder’s FBI desktop computers.

Tableau Dashboard of Reported UFO Sightings 1995–2014.

- By Adam Crahan

UK Paraglider flights

Paraglider pilots use this Tableau Dashboard to benchmark their own flights and plan how to fly further.

Tableau Dashboard visualizing UK Paraglider Flights.

- By Neil Charles

Unaffordable country

Craig uses an effective color palette and a choropleth (filled map) in this Tableau Dashboard. Users can enter their salary, and find out where in England and Wales they can afford to buy a house.

Tableau Dashboard analyzing housing affordability in England and Wales.

- By Craig Bloodworth

Singapore Dengue Fever analysis

David correlates mosquito breeding habits and cases of Dengue Fever over time in Singapore with this informative Tableau Dashboard.

Tableau Dashboard visualizing correlations of mosquito breeding habitats and Dengue Fever cases in Singapore.
Animated Tableau map showing correlations of Dengue Fever cases and mosquito breeding habitats in Singapore.

- By David Murphy

The Mercator problem

Ken uses a “long form” style dashboard to advocate for alternative map projections. The dashboard lets users compare areas, visually showing the difference.

A “longform”-style Tableau Dashboard.

- By Ken Ferlage

Fried chicken

A very odd phenomenon exists in England. There are lots of chicken eateries that prefix “Fried Chicken” with states that aren’t Kentucky! In this map, Gwilym identifies Fried Chicken stores in Oldham, Greater Manchester — “Alaskan Fried Chicken” anyone?

Tableau map of fried chicken stores in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England.

- By Gwilym Lockwood

The subject matters of these maps are very diverse. They can be really funny and out of the left field, or very serious and insightful; but either way, the map is the hero and the star of these dashboards.

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