Google AI Studio Teaching Tableau: Building a Tableau Dashboard with AI Assistance

0:00AI is uh moving incredibly quickly.

0:04Um in this video I'm using a product called Google AI Studio

0:07It essentially allows you to both uh screen share and talk to Google's AI in real time.

0:14So uh there's no prompt interface, there's nothing to type

0:18And I think this is meaningful because in all honesty, I've hated that text box.

0:23That text box we all type into.

0:25I can think much faster than I can type, just as just just just as an observation.

0:29So

0:29Being able to work alongside an AI is a very different experience.

0:33And additionally, I think what this video will show you is that there is a window of opportunity here.

0:41for these tools to help monumentally with learning and improving everyone's skills and understanding.

0:48It it potential it has the potential to truly

0:51Start to solve the data literacy challenges that we sometimes have.

0:54And so I'm doing this in a Tableau context.

0:56You'll see in this video, I basically asked it to start from scratch.

1:00We go to the Tableau Public uh website, the landing page

1:03Yes, I'm logged in, but we start on the landing page and we end up with a dashboard inside of Tableau Public Web Altering.

1:10Now, there will be mistakes.

1:12There'll be sort of what what appear to be probistic sort of guesses along the way

1:17And the thing is, I'm able I'm able to sort of troubleshoot these with the AI and it's able to guide me all the way through.

1:23And another thing you'll see is that it sometimes cuts out.

1:25That's a bug at the moment.

1:26There's a limitation on the length of the session that you can have.

1:29But with all these things said, I really would love you to sort of watch this video with an open mind and let me know what you think in the comments below.

1:36At the end of this video, I'll add some thoughts.

1:38You'll see that in the timestamps uh below.

1:40Um yeah, I I think this is incredible.

1:43I think

1:44It's not perfect, it's not good by any means, but I think the opportunity it presents for the future is incredible.

1:51Has ever, let's get stuck in.

1:52Okay, so we're here on the Tableau Public Landing page.

1:55We're gonna get straight into this experience

1:57What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use Google AI CD to help me build something in Tableau Public.

2:02We're gonna try and cap it to about 20 minutes, but I want to leave this raw unedited so you see every single issue.

2:07or challenge or good thing that it does.

2:10So let's let's do this.

2:11I'm I'm actually pretty excited about this because I've I've seen good things and I'm hoping it works very well with Tableau, but I kind of want to experience this for myself

2:18So let's go ahead.

2:19Um when you log into this experience, you have to log in.

2:22It's gonna need a Google account.

2:24Once you've got that, uh if you go ahead and select uh this option down here.

2:28It gives you the option to show you a camera or a screen.

2:30Now a camera would be pointless because it would just be looking at me.

2:33So we'll go ahead and select the screen.

2:35And as soon as we do this, it's actually live and listening as well.

2:39It's not just uh looking at you know what I'm doing on screen.

2:42So um we're live.

2:44So can can you hear me?

2:46Yes, I can hear you.

2:47Is there anything I can help you with?

2:49Yeah, I'm on I'm on Tableau Public and I'd like your help.

2:53building a uh a couple of charts, but I'm new to Tableau.

2:56I don't know anything about it.

2:58Um I recall someone showing me in a demo that you could create charts in Tableau public.

3:02I'm on the landing page.

3:04Can you remind me how to do that?

3:07Sure, I can help you with that.

3:09You're looking to create charts on Tableau Public, but you are new to the platform.

3:13I can guide you on how to create charts in Tableau Public from the landing page.

3:17Let me know when you're ready to start.

3:19I'm here.

3:20I'm ready.

3:20Let's go.

3:22Okay, let's start.

3:24On the tableau public landing page, locate the create button at the top of the screen.

3:28It's positioned next to Learn.

3:31Click on the Create button and you should see a drop-down with the option to create a viz.

3:35You want to choose create a viz from the drop-down.

3:39I don't see Create Viz.

3:41I see web altering and I see download Tableau Desktop Public Edition.

3:45Uh sh should we try web altering?

3:50Yes, let's try web authoring.

3:52It seems like the create a viz option isn't directly visible from the landing page.

3:57Click on web authoring and let's see where that leads us.

4:01Oh, we're here.

4:02So I see the option to connect to my data and I think I can go ahead and find the file.

4:06I've actually got it here already.

4:08So let me go ahead and upload the file

4:10Uh it says it's uploading.

4:12Um it's done.

4:13Okay.

4:14Um cool.

4:15It's it's taking me to a new.

4:23To create your first chart, you can start by dragging and dropping data fields onto the canvas, or the main area of the worksheet.

4:29What data are you interested in visualizing?

4:32I I don't see any fields, I just see connections, uh sheets and a blank space.

4:39It says drag tables here to create a data model.

4:43Okay, I understand.

4:45It looks like we need to take a step back.

4:47You've uploaded your data, but now you are on the data source page.

4:51On the left hand side under connections, you can see the data you have uploaded, which is called Sample EU Superstore.

4:58Now in the middle area where it says drag tables here to create a data model,

5:03Click and drag one of the tables that appear under Sheets to this main area.

5:07Usually the first table is the Orders table.

5:10Once you drag it, the data field should then appear in the panel underneath Data.

5:14Ah yeah, that's right, that's right.

5:17Okay, that makes sense.

5:18Um and I I was gonna do some analysis on my orders, but what about the people's tables and the returns?

5:24How do I bring those in as well?

5:26Do I just drag them in?

5:29Yes, you are right.

5:30You can drag the people and returns tables from the sheets section on the left and drag them to the same area where orders table is

5:37Double will attempt to create relationships between the tables.

5:41You can then click on sheet one on the bottom left to start building your charts.

5:45Would you like help with this?

5:47What what's a relationship?

5:49Uh I've never heard of that term in in the data field.

5:52I I know about joins.

5:53I've used I've used SQL before, but what's a relationship?

5:59Okay, a relationship in Tableau is similar to a join in SQL, but it's more flexible.

6:04It allows you to combine data from different tables based on common fields, like the order ID

6:10But without creating one giant combined table.

6:13Tableau will determine the best way to bring the tables together when you build your visualizations.

6:18This means it can handle joins between tables that have different granularity of information.

6:22For example, the orders table has information on a per-order level, while the people table has information on a per-customer level.

6:30Tableau will take these different levels into consideration when making your visualizations.

6:35In your screen, the relationship is already set.

6:38You can see on the bottom where the relationship is set on order ID.

6:42Do you want to learn more about joins and relationships?

6:46Um I'm pretty I'm pretty pushed for time with my deadline, so no, not now.

6:50Let's go ahead and build a a chart.

6:52I think you mentioned something about sheet one.

6:54Where is that again?

6:58You're right.

6:59To build a chart, click the Sheet 1 Inch tab, located at the bottom left of the screen.

7:04This will take you to a new worksheet where you can create your visualizations.

7:08It says it's creating an extract.

7:10What is that?

7:13Creating an extract in Tableau is essentially creating a snapshot of your data that's optimized for performance.

7:20It can speed things up, especially if you're working with a large dataset or have a live connection to a slow database.

7:25The extract will be stored locally on your computer, allowing Tableau to retrieve the information quicker.

7:31In your screen, it's importing the data from your tables.

7:34So this process can take some time, but it is creating an extract of the data from your data tables.

7:40I see, I see.

7:41Okay, so now I'm here and now see the fields and the columns.

7:44Um and so I'd like to build a bar chart showing cells over time.

7:50Okay, let's build that bar chart showing sales over time.

7:54You should see the sales field and order date field in the left-hand side under data in the table called orders.

8:00Click and drag the sales field to the rows area in the upper part of the screen, and click and drag the order date field to the columns area.

8:09Now Tableau should build a bar chart of your sales over time.

8:12That's really strange.

8:13Builds a line chart, not a bar chart.

8:16Why is that?

8:20It seems that Tableau defaulted to creating a line chart, which can happen when working with date fields.

8:26To change it to a bar chart, click on the drop-down menu in the marks area of the left-hand side and change from automatic to bar.

8:33This will turn your chart into a bar chart.

8:37Great, great.

8:38Yes.

8:38This is a bar chart.

8:39Thank you so much.

8:40Um this is really good progress.

8:42Now, I I would like one detail with this, because I need to be able to see my data by year and by month.

8:48And then I need to add the average line for each year.

8:51How would I do that?

8:58Okay, so sometimes uh the session stops.

9:01Um basically I think it it's like a a Google Meets call, whatever it's running in the background.

9:05And this does happen quite often, so you do have to sort of

9:08reinitiate the session.

9:09So I'll just go ahead and refresh this.

9:11We go back to the beginning again.

9:13And it's actually pretty good at picking up where it left off.

9:15And the few times I've tried this it's actually really good.

9:18So let's go ahead and hit uh entire screen.

9:21Okay.

9:22It seems like you're about to start a screen recording.

9:24Is there anything specific you'd like to do with it?

9:27No, no.

9:27So I've built this bar chart and what I'd like to do is add

9:32uh month information to this so that I can create an average line for each year but see my bar chart by each month for each year.

9:40Does that make sense

9:44Sure, you've created a bar chart and want to add monthly data to it, so you can create an average line for each year.

9:49Does that sound right?

9:50Yeah, that sounds good.

9:51Let's do it.

9:55Alright, sounds good.

9:57I'll be here if you have any more questions.

9:59Can you help me?

10:01Uh I have no idea what I'm doing.

10:07It sounds like you're feeling a bit lost.

10:10Would you like me to help you with what you want to do with the bar chart?

10:13Yes, please.

10:13That's what I'm asking for, yes.

10:19Okay, let's break it down.

10:20You have a bar chart showing sales by year and you want to see the sales data by month.

10:25Is that right?

10:26That's correct, yes.

10:31Okay, in Tableau you can achieve this by adding the month component of your order date field to the column shelf.

10:38Would you like me to guide you through that?

10:40Yeah, instead of asking me, just always assume that I want to do this thing, so just tell me straight away.

10:49Understood.

10:50To show the data by month, you need to add the month part of your order date field to the column shelf in Tableau.

10:57How do I do that?

11:03Okay, click and drag the order date field from the tables pane to the column shelf.

11:08Then, right-click the field on the column shelf and select month

11:13There's two versions of the month.

11:15Which one should I use?

11:21Choose the top option that simply says month and does not include a year.

11:26And why is that?

11:32Choosing the top month option will display the data for each month across all years.

11:37If you choose the option with the year, you will get data for each specific month of each year.

11:42Since you want an average for each year across all months, you should choose the top option.

11:47Okay, cool.

11:48Now how do I add the average onto this chart?

11:56To add an average line, go to the Analytics tab and drag the average line option onto the chart

12:04Uh it says add a reference line, table, pane, or cell that like which one should I choose?

12:15Choose pain to show the average sales line for each year.

12:19Great, that works.

12:20Okay

12:21Nice.

12:21Um I'd like to build a second chart and I'd love you to help me build this chart.

12:25So um can you suggest a chart?

12:28I've got some categorical information, uh the categories essentially

12:31And I'd like to show proportion, so could you suggest a chart that I can build in Tableau?

12:41Given you want to show proportions with categorical data, a pie chart or a tree map would be suitable.

12:46Would you prefer one of those?

12:48Ooh, let's try a tree map.

12:49I've not seen one of those there.

12:50Show me how to build a tree map.

12:52That sounds fun.

12:58Okay, to build a tree map, start by dragging the categorical field you want to use from the tables pane onto the marks card, specifically onto color.

13:06Then select a tree.

13:08Hold on.

13:08Hold on.

13:09Uh I want to build a new chart.

13:11So how do I build a new chart?

13:12I don't want to delete this one that I already have.

13:20You can create a new worksheet by clicking the plus icon at the bottom of the screen next to the Sheet 1 inch tab.

13:26This way you can build the new chart without deleting the first one.

13:30Oh, there we go.

13:31Okay, great.

13:32So now I'm ready to build um a new chart.

13:35I don't see my data pane.

13:37Like, why is that?

13:43The tables pane is not visible because it is likely minimized.

13:47On the left side of the screen, look for a small arrow or icon near the edge of the window, then click on it to expand the pane.

13:56I can see analytics, so the pane is expanded.

13:59I just can't see data.

14:00Do I click on data to go back?

14:07Yes.

14:08Click on data to return to the tables pane.

14:10Oh, there he is.

14:11Yeah.

14:11Okay, great.

14:12So how do we build a tree map?

14:19Okay, to build a tree map, drag the categorical field from the tables pane to the marks card.

14:25Then, drag the measure you want to visualize onto the size card in the marks card

14:31Where should I put the category information on?

14:34You said it to put it onto the marks card, but where on the marks card?

14:37Do I just put it on there?

14:38Do I just put it like well, where should I put it?

14:41It didn't work when I tried to drag it.

14:51Okay, so it crashed again.

14:52So we're just gonna try and uh reset that a little bit.

14:55So let's go ahead and

14:57Refresh and share my screen again

15:06Okay, I hear you saying screen and jan.

15:09Is there anything else you would like to tell me?

15:11Um I want to build a tree map on this uh page.

15:15Um could you help me do that?

15:19Sure, you would like to build a tree map on the page you are showing, and you are asking me to help.

15:24Is that right?

15:25Correct.

15:34Yeah, let's do let's do it.

15:35Let's build a chart.

15:36Let's build a tree map, come on.

15:40Okay, let's build a tree map.

15:42What do you want to use as the dimensions and measures for it?

15:45I want to use category as a dimension and I want to show the proportion of sales.

15:51So um

15:53Basically the proportion of sales for each category.

15:57Okay, you want to use category as the dimension and sales as the measure to build your tree map.

16:02Is that correct?

16:03Yep.

16:05Okay, then please drag the category field to the columns area and the sales field to the rows area.

16:11That should create a tree map

16:14No, that creates uh a bar chart actually.

16:17Um that's on the tree map

16:21Ah, it seems like it created a bar chart.

16:23My apologies, I will correct myself.

16:26Instead of dragging category to columns, please drag it to the color area in the marks card.

16:31That should give you a tree map.

16:34It gives me a stacked bar chart.

16:38I I don't think tree maps have an axis

16:42You are correct, that is a stacked bar chart.

16:45I apologize for the errors.

16:46To create a tree map, please drag the category dimension to the label area within the marks card, and then select tree map from the drop-down menu in the marks card

16:55Does that work better?

16:57So let's put category onto label and then select tree map.

17:03There's no tree map option.

17:04There's uh line, area, square, circle, shape.

17:08Text map, pi, gamp, polygon, and density, but no tree map.

17:15You are right again, my apologies.

17:17It seems I'm having trouble with the tree map instructions.

17:20Could you try selecting Square from the drop-down menu in the Marks card?

17:24Then, drag sales from the data pane to the size area in the Marks card.

17:28Finally, drag category to label in the marks card and see if this creates a tree map.

17:34Yes, that's created a tree map, but the detail here is that there's no color.

17:39They're all the same color.

17:40How do I have a different color?

17:42for each category.

17:46Ah, you are correct, the tree map is all the same color.

17:49To fix this, please drag the category dimension from the data pane to the color area in the marks card.

17:54That should color the squares differently based on the category.

17:58Yeah, what colors can you see?

18:02I can see three colors.

18:03Blue for technology, orange for office supplies, and red for furniture.

18:09Okay.

18:10Um three correct colours, but I think you got the labels the wrong way around.

18:13But nonetheless, that's good.

18:14That's really good.

18:15I'd love to add the sales value onto the chart.

18:18How do I do that?

18:22To add the sales value onto the chart, please drag the sales measure from the data pane to the label area on the Marks card.

18:29That should display the sales value in each rectangle

18:33And how do I get the currency formatting on this sales figure?

18:40To apply currency formatting, please right-click on the sales pill in the rows area.

18:45Then select Format.

18:47In the formatting pane that appears, select number and choose the currency standard format.

18:53And that should apply the currency formatting.

18:55The sales value is not on the rows shelf, it's on the marks pane.

18:58Is that what you meant?

19:01You are absolutely correct, my apologies.

19:04The sales pill is on the marks card, not in rows

19:07Please right-click on the sum sales pill on the marks card instead.

19:12Then follow the same formatting instructions I gave you before.

19:15My apologies for this repeated mistake.

19:19Okay, great.

19:20I think I have my currency.

19:22Um last question.

19:27Okay, I'm ready for your last question.

19:29Let's build a bar uh a dashboard together.

19:32How do we do that?

19:36Okay, let's build a dashboard.

19:40To do that, click on the new dashboard button at the bottom of the screen next to the Sheet tabs.

19:45That should open a new dashboard where you can add visualizations.

19:49Okay, and how do I do that?

19:54Now you can drag your sheet from the left side of the screen to the central dashboard area, and that should display your tree map on the dashboard.

20:00Would you like me to help you with anything else?

20:02Um yeah, I've seen I've seen people do this cool interactive thing with Tableau where they're like click on one chart and it changes and filters the other chart.

20:11How do I do that here?

20:15Okay, you want to make your charts interactive so that when you click on one it filters the other.

20:20To do this, click on the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of Sheet 1 and select Use as Filter.

20:27Then do the same for sheet two.

20:29Now you should be able to click on one chart to filter the other.

20:32Does that work?

20:33Um When you say the drop down arrow, what do you mean?

20:37I'm clicking on one and it says edit title

20:46I think the session run out of really annoying time.

20:49That always tends to be the case.

20:50It it dies right as you're asking a question.

20:52um convenient but let's just restart this again one last time then we'll go ahead and finish this dashboard.

20:58I'll have to kind of help it along here.

21:00So um Google, can you see my screen?

21:04Yes, I can see your screen.

21:06It shows a Tableau Public Workbook.

21:09Okay, great.

21:11Um

21:12I'd like to make uh this interactive and I think I was speaking to someone and they said that if I c select sheet one and I click on a drop down arrow, I can use it as a filter for sheet two.

21:24Is that is that correct?

21:25Is that can can I do that?

21:31You would like to filter sheet 2 using the drop-down arrow in sheet 1.

21:36However, in the tableau application you are using, the drop-down arrows next to the sheets are not used for filtering purposes.

21:43Instead, they are for renaming and other sheet-specific options

21:47To filter sheet 2, you may have to use a filter control or another interactive method.

21:53What are the other interactive methods?

21:58You could add filter controls or use actions in the dashboard to filter the views.

22:02How does How does actions work?

22:05Yeah, can I set up a an action here?

22:09You can set up actions in the dashboard to filter the data in one sheet based on selections in another sheet.

22:15The action can be a filter, highlight, or URL.

22:19Would you like to know how to set up a filter action?

22:21Yeah, let's do that.

22:22Show me.

22:25Okay, first go to the dashboard menu.

22:27Then select the actions option.

22:29In the actions menu you can add a new action

22:32Choose a filter action, select sheet 1 as your source sheet and select sheet 2 inches as your target sheet.

22:39Select what will be filtered.

22:40You can select all fields.

22:42Then click OK, and now you have a dashboard action that filters sheet two by your selections in sheet one.

22:50I'm clicking it and it's not working.

22:54It seems that you are clicking on the chart in sheet 1, but that is not the action you should be using.

22:59You should be clicking the title of the sheet in order to apply your filter to sheet 2.

23:07Um Okay.

23:10Um we're gonna stop here.

23:11Thank thanks for your help.

23:15You're welcome.

23:16Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

23:18In fact, yeah, can I can I teach you something?

23:23Sure, I'm always ready to learn something new.

23:26And I'd love to teach me.

23:27I'd love you to ask questions as we go along.

23:29Is that possible?

23:32Yes, I can certainly ask questions as we go along.

23:35I'm ready when you are.

23:37Okay, so here's the thing.

23:38When you when you showed me how to set up that sheet action, you kind of did it wrong.

23:42Um let me show you why.

23:44If I go to the dashboard option here and we go and edit actions, um when we set up this action, let me go ahead and edit it

23:52You needed to also tell me to run an action on selection, not just on the menu, because that way when someone clicks on something, it filters that.

24:01Does that make sense?

24:06You're right.

24:07I should have specified that the action needs to run on select for the filter to work when clicking on the chart in sheet one, not just the title.

24:14That way, when someone clicks a part of the chart, it will then filter the data in sheet two.

24:19Thank you for pointing that out.

24:21Is there anything else I can help you with?

24:23Yeah, the other thing I'd like to show you is that there's actually a quicker way to do it.

24:27Um and you simply go to the ch the the the sheet.

24:31So in this case I've gone to sheets here, I've selected it.

24:34And then on the right hand side there's a the third icon down there's a use as filter option.

24:39If you select that, tablet automatically adds

24:43an action filter for you and it does that on selection.

24:46You can see that it's working here, right?

24:48So that's a much faster way of doing it on the dashboard.

24:51What do you think about that?

24:57That is a very helpful shortcut.

24:58Thank you for showing me that.

24:59Is there anything else I can help you with?

25:02Um, no, that's it.

25:03Thanks for your help today.

25:05Okay, so that's the experience uh pretty much done.

25:08Um I'm just editing this and this is when I'm doing my reflection.

25:11I kind of wanted to sit on it for a bit and edit it because sometimes when you go through something for the first time you can

25:16sort of uh have this euphoria from the experience, a sort of cloudsy judgment.

25:20And I I'm watching this back and I I genuinely

25:24I'm actually genuinely impressed at how far we got compared to how far I've gotten before with sort of chat-based LLMs.

25:32Um the thing about chat-based LLMs is that they they have a set of instructions that's just based on documentation they've consumed, and they assume a specific interface.

25:42In this experience there were moments where it was clear that it was it was it was basing it what it was saying based on what it could see at various times.

25:50Like

25:51calling out the sheet names.

25:52Um uh it incorrectly sort of labeled the colours, but it saw the colours that um that was on the screen.

25:59I didn't tell it that

26:00it it got the colours correct, it just the labels were in in in the wrong position.

26:04And I give it I give it a little bit of leniency for that because that that could just be to do with computer vision.

26:09But even then like come on this is this is really advanced technology

26:14that we're seeing here.

26:15And I don't know about you, but you know, this was a twenty-five minute experience.

26:20Now if I should have if I just think about everyone's first twenty-five minutes with a product like this

26:28I don't think it's as smooth as this unless you're in a training session, you've paid for training, you're watching a YouTube tutorial like mine.

26:37Um, for a lot of people who just opened the product for the first time, um

26:42Like this this is actually a pretty good experience to have.

26:47And so I find myself conflicted.

26:49On one hand

26:50There were some mistakes and I I couldn't in good conscience recommend this to be a tool to go and use and learn.

26:57But at the same time

26:59I would really encourage everyone to go and try this tool.

27:03Because in your own context, in different things, maybe it's not Tableau, maybe you're a day traveler just learning uh other tools, maybe you're

27:10You're doing something.

27:11Maybe you're coding.

27:12Maybe maybe you're stuck in a problem you just you just don't know what to do.

27:16This this could be a really good way to solve this.

27:19And the thing is, this is agnostic.

27:21It's not just about Tableau here.

27:23Like

27:23If I had an issue in Excel before I loaded this dataset into Tableau, it too could help with that.

27:29I actually did this video because I saw a video by Kevin Stratvert, who's like the king of tutorials on YouTube.

27:36And he did he did this demo with Google AI C do in Excel and he he got it to work through an Excel problem.

27:42Um you maybe seen Andy Cotrieve's video also on Tableau.

27:46Again.

27:47Um and so I think this capability is really profound.

27:50It's not at professional level just yet.

27:53But as with all of these things, it never starts out that way

27:56And I think with a bit of grounding and a bit of tailoring to a product, you know, really closing down the scope and saying this is for Tableau, almost exclusively only giving it access to Tableau to learn from and train from.

28:11This could be this could be really profound and powerful.

28:14Honestly, I don't know if I'm being sensational.

28:16Let me know in the comments.

28:17To to me, as someone who makes tutorials

28:20like this, being able to ask the questions that I know people have asked me as a trainer in the past, as a as someone who makes these videos on YouTube, who sees the comments when people ask questions about the videos I've made and it's obvious that I've missed something.

28:35This handled a lot of things very, very well.

28:37And and we got to an output.

28:39We got to an output and I think a very reasonable way.

28:41I wasn't coaching it.

28:43Yes, I corrected it at certain times.

28:45I was able to just rescue the session a little bit in certain areas

28:48Um but apart from that, we we got there in the end.

28:51We were able to kind of do what we needed to do.

28:54So I think this is good.

28:56Thanks for watching.

28:57We'll see you in the next one.