Preparation time: 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: Easy
Objective: Make a heat map
A heat map is a powerful visual tool that allows you to quickly represent volumes of data through colors. It is particularly effective for analyzing relationships between several dimensions, such as the performance of teams by department or the most intense periods of activity in a call center. Thanks to color variations, heat maps immediately reveal areas of interest, making it easy to identify trends or anomalies in your data.
Required Data
- 1 data set, Hypermarket (at the bottom of the Tableau Desktop login page),
- 1 measure (profits),
- 1 dimension (sub-categories, regions, segments, etc...).
Instructions
- Drag the field Segment In the Columns,
- Drag fields Geographic area and Sub-category In the Lines,
- Slide the measurement Profit in the tab colour of the landmark,
- If it is not done automatically, select a type of coordinate system Square.
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Advice
Here are some tips for designing heat maps that are both clear and impactful:
- Use only one color for only positive or negative values, varying the intensity (for example, light to dark blue). If your data contains positive and negative values, use two contrasting colors, such as blue and red, to make the distinction more intuitive.
- Adjust the granularity data to avoid visual overload, by grouping information if necessary.
- Limit the number of categories so as not to clutter up the visualization.
