Tableau Dashboard Layout Tips
Have you ever worked on a dashboard with dozens of objects, where you have spent many hours to finally complete a nice layout dashboard? However, something happened that required you to insert new objects. In this case, you might have to do many actions, including the removal and resizing of each object. It sounds like a lot of work, but if the dashboard is created following the Tableau guidelines then it should be easy.
5 tips to layout your dashboard:
1. Use container
Working with the Tableau dashboard layout, we can add multiple containers into a container, and then recursively inside another container… Yes, it sounds complicated, why bother to use containers when you can just drag and drop your object, right? Well… think of it as an investment, if you already know that the dashboard will contain a lot of objects, then take your time from the beginning and use containers appropriately. A container is useful because:
- It groups your objects, so moving things around will be less amount of work
- It can evenly divide your layout — the same object’s width with a single click
- Hide and show an object — auto resize the shown object, no more blank space in the dashboard
2. Blank objects can be useful
This is related to the first tip, using containers can be tricky. Containers are automatically resized following the object inside, so it can be as small as a single word text object. Putting a blank object as the first object in the container will prevent the container from resizing.
3. Tiled vs Floating
Tiled if the dashboard layout has no overlap items. Float to add layers to the layout. Group the floating objects with containers for easy layout-ing.
4. Padding, Borders, and Background
These three can be set at the object level, including the chart or view. Change the padding or border size to add space in between the objects. Some objects have default padding size, set this to 0 for a seamless design.
5. Don’t forget about the device layout
Tableau automatically creates the other device layout from the dashboard you have created. If the dashboard is planned to be accessed on multiple devices, don’t forget to check it out, and make sure it is presented as you expected.
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