0:00Hey, Tim here. And welcome to this quick
0:02tip where I'm going to show you how to make
0:04content pop off the page.
0:06So what do I mean by pop? Well, Tableau
0:08does this automatically. It's essentially a
0:11trick that uses contrast to help you focus
0:13in on a particular part of the sheet.
0:15So in this example, I have a bar chart
0:17showing the countries and then the sales
0:20for each country ranked.
0:23When I hover over them, you can see that
0:25Tableau adds a very, very thin border
0:28around the bar. And that has the effect of
0:31helping you focus in on what you're doing
0:33and sort of focuses in on each of the bars.
0:36And it really helps with contrast. Now, if
0:38you were to zoom into one of these bars,
0:40you'd also notice there's probably also a
0:42much fainter sort of thin border going
0:44around.
0:45And that has the effect again of making the
0:47bars sit a bit above the page. Now, you can
0:49be more deliberate with this effect with
0:51bar charts by just simply going in and
0:52selecting black.
0:54And you can see straight away there that
0:55the bars are popping off the page a little
0:57bit. If I just go back, you can see it
0:59without and you can see it with.
1:02You can literally feel the content popping
1:04off the page. Now, what I'm going to do is
1:05make this effect a little bit more obvious
1:07by dropping the color down a little bit to
1:0962%.
1:11So you can much easily see the sort of
1:12border. Then I'm going to go to my example
1:15dashboard where this sheet has already been
1:17placed.
1:18Now, the thing is, this effect also works
1:20with layout. If you use this more generally
1:23in your layouts, it's much easier for the
1:25user to focus in on what you want them to
1:27see.
1:28So in this case, what I've done is I've put
1:29some layout containers. I've put in one at
1:32the top and one at the bottom. These
1:34essentially are just giving me some padding
1:37.
1:37In this middle one, which I'll show you now
1:39, I've put three things. A blank on the
1:41right, a blank on the left, and a sheet in
1:44the middle which is actually inside its own
1:47layout container.
1:49So everything is balanced in an equilibrium
1:51here. Everything is nicely spaced out and
1:54nothing is contesting for space. And the
1:56thing I want you to look at is in the
1:57middle.
1:58So you might think, well, that's my job
2:00done. Well, there's actually more you can
2:02do here and it's very, very simple. First
2:04of all, start by selecting the layout
2:06container surrounding the content that you
2:08want to focus in on.
2:10Having done that, go and format it. And
2:13then what you can do is you can change two
2:15things. You can either change the
2:17formatting of the layout container, so the
2:19color inside the layout container, or you
2:21can just change the border.
2:23So I'm going to just change the border.
2:25What I'm going to do is I'm going to choose
2:27a slightly off sort of gray. When I click
2:29out, you can see that's had the desired
2:32effect.
2:33But I'm actually not done yet. See, this is
2:34popping out the page. There's one last
2:36thing that's really fighting with the user
2:39here. And it's a very, very subtle thing.
2:42But the whole background is using the color
2:43white. But the sheet is also using the
2:45color white. And so you can help the user
2:47focus in on where the background is and
2:49where the content is by changing one of
2:50those two colors.
2:52So in this case, if I change the background
2:54to a slightly off gray, then you can see
2:57the effect works straight away. Now the
3:00chart is front and center in the middle.
3:04However, how much harder I try, I can't
3:05help but look at the sheet in the middle.
3:08And if you have multiple things on the page
3:10, it can really help you very quickly notify
3:12where the key sections of the chart are.
3:16If I change it to a slightly darker shade
3:17of gray, the effect still works. And it
3:19looks balanced. It looks very sort of well
3:21laid out. Now here at the top, you can see
3:23that the example sheet option has taken the
3:25same color as the background.
3:27So what I'm going to do is I'm going to
3:28format the title. And to play further with
3:31this effect, I'm actually going to give it
3:33a slightly lighter shade of gray.
3:35So I'm giving contrast across the whole
3:37visualization. And in three or four clicks,
3:39I've just literally elevated this very,
3:42very simple visualization into something
3:44that looks beautiful.
3:46And so that's it. That's a quick tip for
3:48this week. If you like it, please like the
3:50video, share it with your friends, and I'll
3:52see you in the next one.
Tableau | Data visualisation