Tableau 10: New Interface and UX Design changes

0:00Hey, Tim here, and today I'm going to be

0:03taking you through the new features in

0:05Tableau 10. In this video I'm going to

0:07focus on the visual design and I'm going

0:09to do this by comparing 9.3 with version 10

0:13side-by-side. So first let's

0:15open up Tableau 9.3. I already have it open

0:18here and in this view you have the

0:21Connect, Open and Discover pane. In the

0:24middle you normally have recent workbooks

0:27that you've opened and then at the bottom

0:28you have sample workbooks. And the

0:30Connect and the Discover pane have the same

0:32sort of blue background. In Tableau 10

0:35this design has changed and the main change

0:38that you'll notice straightaway

0:40is that the Discover pane has a greyed

0:42background. The vis-a-vis and the sections

0:45remain the same but it's been greyed out I

0:48think to focus your attention on the

0:50connection. You see in the previous design

0:52when you open Tableau you had

0:54this sort of battle going on between the

0:57Connect and Discover pane and sometimes

0:59your eyes would sort of take you away from

1:01what you're trying to do which is

1:03your work. So in version 10 they've made

1:06you focus on the Connect pane so that

1:08your eyes naturally dive into that and if

1:10you're looking for a healthy

1:11distraction the Discover pane is still

1:13there and you can still interact with

1:15it. The other subtle change here is that

1:17the font has been upgraded. If I just

1:19drag this to the side you'll notice that if

1:21you look at them side-by-side the

1:24font is ever so slightly lighter and ever

1:26so slightly smoother. Okay so that's

1:29the first key change. Now if I go back to 9

1:32.3 and I open a data source here I have

1:35samples EU Superstore cells and I do the

1:40same thing in Tableau 10 you'll notice a

1:42difference straightaway. So let me just

1:45switch back to 9.3. You have your

1:47dimensions and measures and pages, filters,

1:50marks, columns, rows and then you

1:52have your canvas. In Tableau 10 the canvas

1:56takes up the whole space

1:57straightaway. You don't have to build a

1:59visualization for that to happen and the

2:02columns, rows, figures, filters and marks

2:05are greyed out and then your dimensions

2:07and measures have a slightly softer feel

2:09and the whole focus around this design

2:11change I think is to make you focus on the

2:14canvas. Picture this as a tool like

2:17Photoshop or picture yourself as an artist.

2:19The canvas is what you focus on.

2:21Everything else is simply a tool that helps

2:23you achieve what you're trying to

2:25achieve and so by simplifying the design

2:27around the canvas and making the user

2:30focus on the canvas allows you just maybe

2:34to you know do your work in a

2:35slightly more efficient and better way and

2:37really sort of be ingrained in what

2:39you're doing. I mean that's my personal

2:41opinion of why the design has changed and

2:43I think that's been reflected in some of

2:45the blog posts that Tableau have been

2:46talking about. The other thing you'll

2:49notice is that the iconology has changed.

2:51So the icons have changed throughout the

2:53tool. The application icons have changed.

2:55This always happens between versions but

2:57also you have these marks icons that

2:59have also changed and when you click on

3:01those they also have subtly different

3:03elements within them and one thing you'll

3:05notice throughout Tableau 10 is

3:07that the defaults have changed and so here

3:10you can see the color panes are

3:12slightly different to what we're used to.

3:14If I look at the same ones in Tableau

3:169.3 you'll notice these are much darker

3:19sort of stronger colors and Morin Stone

3:22has done a great blog post on the Tableau

3:24blog about why these defaults are

3:25the way they are so please check that out.

3:28If we build the visualization you'll

3:31also see defaults behaving differently. So

3:34I'm going to build the visualization

3:36first in 9.3. I'm going to drag product

3:38name onto detail then I'm going to drag

3:41profit onto color and here Tableau makes a

3:45decision and uses the red and green

3:48coloring scheme to show me profit and loss

3:51and then I'm going to make this a

3:53scatterplot by dragging sales up top and

3:56then control dragging profit so that it

3:59copies the field and I get my scatterplot.

4:02It's a very simple chart.

4:03Just take a moment to just take this in,

4:06look at how it feels, look at where

4:09the canvas is. If we do the same thing in

4:11Tableau 10 for a start the canvas is

4:14already taken up the full page. I'm going

4:17to drag profit onto color this time then

4:20I'm going to drag product onto detail and

4:24notice that the colors are different

4:27straight away. Instead of choosing red and

4:29green Tableau have chosen orange and

4:32blue and this is I think largely to do with

4:35accessibility but also I think I

4:38just find it generally easier to interpret

4:40this color scheme compared to

4:43the previous one and if we carry on

4:46building this out, I think I might have

4:51put these the wrong way around so I'll just

4:53switch them out, you'll see there's

4:55a much lighter feel to the visualization.

4:57Tableau are trying to encourage you to

4:59have a slightly softer design touch and you

5:02'll also notice that the title is

5:05seamless, it's part of the canvas whereas

5:08before it wasn't even there and you'd

5:10have to go up to the worksheet and show the

5:13title to see the title, okay. And so

5:16these are very subtle but important changes

5:18and you'll see these happening

5:19throughout the whole of Tableau 10 and

5:22whether it's color, tooltips, information,

5:26the way everything is displayed has subtly

5:28changed and so I really encourage

5:30you to sort of dive around, kick around and

5:32see how many different things you can

5:33spot. That's been it for this video, in my

5:36next video I'll be focusing on dashboard

5:39design and formatting and see what changes

5:41Tableau 10 has brought about and

5:44maybe what we would like to see more of.

5:48That's been it, that's been me.