Russ will share how implementing dashboard actions in stacked bar charts has helped him with stacked bar chart comparisons.

2. Tableau Tips: Dashboard Actions
Shuffling the Stacks with Stacked Bar Charts
Russell W. Cantrell, MSCIS, MBA
Director of Data Administration and Strategic Initiatives
Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine
University of South Alabama

3. Problems with Pies
People aren’t good at understanding this at a glance
• Not very precise – best guess as to the size of each slice
• Measured using angles, curves, and surface area
Often there are too many slices
• Text ends up being too small to easily read
• Too many colors needed to separate items
Stacked Bar Charts are a common alternative
But isn’t it the exact same thing, just spread out horizontally?

4. Pie Chart vs. Stacked Bar Charts
What’s the difference?
Imagine “wrapping” the bar chart around and connecting it to itself in a loop.
A stacked bar chart, basically, is just a pie chart that has been “flattened out”.

5. Data Densitiy and Dimensionality
Data Density is the idea of packing in as much information as you can into a
chart or visualization. Ideally, you want there to be as much data as possible.
Data Dimensions refers to the different ways you can display data. You can
separate items by size, color, position, etc., to add new information to a chart.
In this example, we want to add the student’s med school year (M1-M4) in
addition to the overall satisfaction rates.
Currently, while you can compare totals, you can’t compare subtotals.
Adding in color allows us to do this. But it causes a problem on the X-axis.

6. Adding Dimensionality through Color

7. Lights… Camera… ACTION!
We need to compare all M1 students, all M2 students, etc.
However, we can’t really do this without a common baseline.
But how can we sort these, since only one color code starts at zero axis?
The answer is Dashboard Actions!
(special thanks to Andy Kriebel for showing me this trick)

8. Dashboard Actions in Tableau
https://www.tableau.com/blog/rough-guide-dashboard-actions

9. Using Dashboard Actions to Sort Data
Step by step for what we’ll do to fix this chart:
1) Create a stacked bar chart
2) Create a parameter
3) Create a calculated field
4) Create parameter action
5) Create dashboard action
6) Change sort settings
7) Change animation settings
8) Change highlight settings

10. Using Dashboard Actions to Sort Data
Step by step for what we’ll do to fix this chart:
1) Create a stacked bar chart
2) Create a parameter
3) Create a calculated field
4) Create parameter action
5) Create dashboard action
6) Change sort settings
7) Change animation settings
8) Change highlight settings
Create the chart

11. Using Dashboard Actions to Sort Data
Step by step for what we’ll do to fix this chart:
1) Create a stacked bar chart
2) Create a parameter
3) Create a calculated field
4) Create parameter action
5) Create dashboard action
6) Change sort settings
7) Change animation settings
8) Change highlight settings
Create the actions

12. Using Dashboard Actions to Sort Data
Step by step for what we’ll do to fix this chart:
1) Create a stacked bar chart
2) Create a parameter
3) Create a calculated field
4) Create parameter action
5) Create dashboard action
6) Change sort settings
7) Change animation settings
8) Change highlight settings
Change the settings

14. Create a Parameter
A parameter is a workbook
variable such as a number, date, or
string that can replace a constant
value in a calculation, filter,
reference line, or dashboard action.
This step gives us something to
sort by. We could manually choose
this from a dropdown list, but
instead we’ll later set this to happen
automatically.

15. Create a Calculated Field
Calculated fields allow you to
create new data from data that
already exists in your data
source.
This step uses the “1” and “0” as
a number we can sort by. The
active year will have the “1”, and
therefore will be sorted to the
bottom.

16. Create another Calculated Field
This one isn’t really used.
We’ll need a blank here to keep
Tableau from highlighting
something we’re trying to sort by.
It doesn’t matter what’s added
here, so simply adding a blank
space is enough.

17. Set up your Dashboard Actions
This is where we will control what
Tableau does when certain things
are clicked or selected.
There are TONS of cool things
you can tell Tableau to do here.
In this example, we’ll add an
action to decide which field we’re
sorting by, and another to get rid
of the current selection highlight.

18. Add a Sort action
This is where we select the thing
that we’re going to sort by.
If I select something by clicking
on it, I want to automatically
change the parameter.
So if I select the “Med Year 4”
student group (by clicking on the
right color), I’m telling Tableau to
set the “behind the scenes” part
to match.

19. Add a Highlight action
This is where we get rid of the highlight.
By default, Tableau highlights something
when it’s selected. We want to use actions
to cause this to filter instead.
Basically, when we select on something
here, we’re giving Tableau the command to
“do nothing.”

20. Change sort options
This is where we actually tell Tableau how
to sort the data.
Instead of sorting in ascending or
descending order, we want to sort by the
new “sorter” field we created.
Because of the earlier IF/THEN calculation,
this will either be a “1” for the bottom set of
bars or “0” for the rest.

21. Adjust Animation settings
This just makes things pretty.
From here, you can control how fast the
screen updates, how long the animation
lasts, and similar things.
Feel free to play around with this part until it
“looks right.”

22. Now, let’s do it in