0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video we're
0:01going to be covering the features announced
0:03at Tableau Conference for Tableau Desktop.
0:06Let's get started.
0:07Okay, so I feel like I have to start this
0:09video by a little sort of brief note.
0:11And that is about a sort of underlying tone
0:13and the comments that I've seen that, hey
0:15look, the keynote was great,
0:18but didn't see too many features that are
0:20going to make my experience as a desktop
0:22author exciting.
0:24And I also have to sort of respond to some
0:26of those and say, yeah, actually you wouldn
0:28't see any of those in the keynote.
0:31The keynote has never been that sort of
0:32venue for announcing those kinds of
0:34features.
0:35The place for those kinds of features are
0:37actually the quarterly beta releases.
0:39Whenever Tableau says, here's what's coming
0:40, and they give you a list of all the
0:42features,
0:43that's when we actually get to see what's
0:44in the product.
0:45The keynote has always been a piece about
0:47the vision and direction of Tableau.
0:50And I think in the last couple of years
0:51when Tableau have merged devs on stage in
0:53the keynote,
0:54people have sort of merged the expectation
0:56of both of those into one thing.
0:58And so I always like to stress the keynote
1:00had subtle messaging to kind of say, look,
1:03this is where we've come from.
1:05This is what we're really proud and happy
1:07to celebrate.
1:08These are the challenges we've still got
1:09left to sort out.
1:11This is where we're heading.
1:13And this is what's in the future, right?
1:15That was sort of an underlying high level
1:17brief summary of the keynote.
1:20If you kind of didn't get that tone, check
1:22out my keynote explainer.
1:24I've already talked about this in a lot
1:25more depth there.
1:27But nonetheless, the keynote wouldn't be
1:29the place for that.
1:30And I think devs on stage being a lot
1:32shorter and being crammed onto the end of
1:33the keynote has probably led to this sort
1:35of feeling.
1:36Normally devs on stage would be longer and
1:37we'd see a lot more of these capabilities.
1:40That said, Tableau still showed a lot of
1:42features.
1:43So let's get into some of those and let's
1:44have a look at what they are.
1:46The first feature is the ability to edit
1:48the alt text.
1:49Now this has sort of been a growing
1:50momentum in the accessibility space.
1:53Essentially Tableau has been trying to
1:54improve accessibility of its products over
1:56the last few years.
1:58Part of the capability that supported that
2:00was data stories.
2:02The ability for Tableau to essentially give
2:04you some contextual information about a
2:06chart using an extension that you add to
2:09your dashboard.
2:10Well that also enabled capability for
2:12accessibility in the backend because
2:14essentially you can add one of these
2:15elements.
2:16And those with visual impairments can use
2:18this to either use screen reader technology
2:21or just have better, more accessible ways
2:23of seeing the same information in more than
2:25one way.
2:26Accessibility is for absolutely everyone.
2:28And Tableau have added that capability to
2:30the data guide capability.
2:33So the data guide is a functionality that
2:35was added to allow authors to start to add
2:37context and information.
2:39Think of it as organisational and
2:41instructional metadata to a dashboard.
2:45And now you can edit the alt text that
2:47comes with the dashboard.
2:49And this works across all the levels that
2:50you would expect.
2:52So the data guide works at a dashboard
2:53level, it works at a chart level and it can
2:56also work at a data point level.
2:59Except for the data point level I don't
3:00think you get the ability to edit some of
3:02the more granular levels of information.
3:05But at a dashboard and as a sheet level it
3:07definitely is a way of adding alt text to
3:10these visualisations.
3:12So you can describe what's being shown and
3:14then leave the capabilities of Tableau to
3:16sort of summarise what's actually being
3:18said to something a lot simpler.
3:21So that's a really powerful capability.
3:23I'm really keen to see how this works.
3:25I've definitely not covered accessibility
3:26enough on this channel.
3:28The features have come out but in essence I
3:30've never just done a specific focus on the
3:33accessibility features so I feel like I'm
3:35calling myself out here.
3:36It's something I have to improve so maybe
3:37at some point we'll get someone who knows a
3:39lot more about this than me on the channel
3:42and we can talk together for a while and
3:44try and dig through all these features.
3:45That will happen soon, I'll pledge to do it
3:47before the end of the year.
3:49Let's move on to the next feature.
3:50The other area that was super interesting
3:52is images.
3:53Now images had a lot of emphasis last year,
3:55we had a lot of features come through.
3:57We had even support for image URLs being
3:59loaded dynamically in the table.
4:01This has been a fantastic capability set
4:03and actually started with some of the
4:04capability that you could add to a
4:06dashboard.
4:07For example you could use web objects to
4:08load images in and so this has always been
4:10something that's been improving.
4:12Now what's possible is you can use GIFs
4:15alongside normal images.
4:18Now the imaging capability has been sort of
4:20one of these things that has been a little
4:22bit sort of troublesome because there are
4:24some sort of very fine boundaries.
4:26But I've done a couple of videos on using
4:27an image service, for example something
4:30like Cloudinary, to be able to add
4:32parameters to a URL and have Cloudinary do
4:36the processing of images in real time based
4:38on the dashboard.
4:39So what that allows you to do is to make
4:40sure you fit within the requirements every
4:43single time.
4:44And it also scales because Cloudinary have
4:46an API that you can use and it kind of
4:48works at the same scale that most people
4:50would be wanting to use images.
4:52Let's say you've got a thousand images, you
4:54can't be manually naming and organizing
4:56those images.
4:57They're going to be named after specific
4:58sort of assets in your data set and you'll
5:00have tags and IDs and metadata that you can
5:02use.
5:03And so this is a really good feature set
5:05because GIFs are now part of that.
5:07What it might allow you to do is to do some
5:09really creative work with GIFs.
5:12Now GIFs are essentially videos, think of
5:14them as videos and in a really interesting
5:16way you could use that sort of basic
5:19functionality to do more interesting
5:21product shots.
5:21Maybe rotating product images. You've seen
5:23GIFs on all over the internet and so I'm
5:26sure everyone here watching this video
5:27knows exactly how GIFs work and how they
5:30can be manipulated.
5:32But nonetheless really nice to see that
5:33that support is being added.
5:35Let's head on to the next feature.
5:37Now this is a basic one, geocoding native
5:39inside of Tableau. What does that mean?
5:41Well previously if you had an address for
5:43an individual, an address for a business,
5:47you'd have to send that off to a geocoding
5:49service. A geocoding service simply takes
5:51that address and returns a latitude and
5:53longitude for that address based on a
5:55database that it's able to look up.
5:57So that involves quite a lot of work and
5:59normally you've had to access paid systems
6:01to do that reliably and in a sort of repeat
6:04able way.
6:05Now the problem is that sometimes dash
6:06boards have very small data sets and geoc
6:09oding is just not something that people are
6:11going to go out of their way to add to
6:13their pipeline unless it's absolutely
6:15fundamental.
6:16And for the people who do have to use geoc
6:17oding, let's say you're doing some
6:19geographical analysis, maybe you plot
6:21locations around a specific geographical
6:24area and the actual location matters a lot
6:27because it's part of your sort of business
6:29workflow.
6:30Then geocoding is an inherent part of what
6:32they do and those companies pay a lot of
6:34money for those services to do that
6:36reliably and to do it well.
6:38What we have here in Tableau is essentially
6:40a native capability to do that. So you can
6:42give it a column with address information
6:45and it will resolve the latitude and long
6:47itude onto a map for you without you having
6:49to go and do any geocoding.
6:51Again this is one of those long requested
6:53features in the community forums and it's
6:55just so good to see it here finally in
6:57Tableau. Let's move on to the next one.
6:59This one's a brief one, VizArt. I call it
7:01VizArt, that's actually the name of the
7:03pilot program but it's just essentially new
7:05chart types in Tableau.
7:07And at the moment there's a pilot on Table
7:09au Public where you can build a Sankey and a
7:11Radial chart. If you haven't seen that
7:12already go and check out my video on that.
7:14Try it for yourself on Tableau Public.
7:16It's actually really interesting how
7:17powerful it is to be able to create these
7:19complex chart types using the simple
7:21interface of Tableau.
7:23It just shows you how forward looking Table
7:25au was when they came up with the system
7:27because the system works for new chart
7:29types today.
7:30Now the challenge of course is having those
7:32systems adapt to new chart types that
7:35challenge the business norms and the sort
7:37of let's say push towards more the Stephen
7:40McCandley's, you know David McCandley's
7:43view rather than the Stephen view
7:44perspective of keeping everything strict
7:47and proper.
7:48So it's a really interesting challenge for
7:50Tableau to solve. Nonetheless they showed a
7:52demo on stage so this isn't really new but
7:54this will get released at some point soon
7:57and that's how it was sort of pitched at
7:58conference.
7:59So really keen to see not just how they
8:00release this but you've got to remember it
8:03was a pilot program for a reason.
8:05I think what's really going on here is they
8:06're testing the infrastructure for releasing
8:09chart types.
8:10More importantly they could be trusting the
8:12infrastructure to allow you to define your
8:15own chart types because fundamentally how
8:18does a company like Tableau solve this
8:20problem?
8:22They could just give you the charts you're
8:24asking for or they could provide the base
8:26level charts they want to make sure work
8:28fast every time.
8:29And based on telemetry they can give every
8:31other user every other creative user who
8:33comes up with a new chart type the ability
8:35to define charts using something like SVG
8:38icons and SVG technology to try and allow
8:41you to define how an asset works on the
8:43marks, color, label, size, all those
8:46standard things that we can define in Table
8:48au.
8:49How those all map to a new chart type. So
8:51that could be a new way of doing it and
8:53that's maybe what this feature set is.
8:55Let's move on to the last item here which
8:56is about shared dimensions.
8:58For a long time Tableau has not allowed you
9:00to essentially create data models that
9:03allow sort of let's say reverse references.
9:06So for example in Tableau when you add a
9:07data model everything goes from one
9:09direction to the right.
9:11I'll try and put an image on screen and I
9:13'll just describe this a lot better with
9:15some documentation on screen and what's not
9:18possible.
9:19Nonetheless Tableau showcased a resolution
9:21to this problem so now you don't have to go
9:23out and keep adding the same table multiple
9:25times to get the result you need.
9:27You can just create a reference back to the
9:29beginning or reference back to another
9:31table and Tableau will dynamically figure
9:34out the data model as you're working
9:36through whatever data set you're working
9:37with.
9:38So this is an update to the data modeling
9:40capabilities but I think it further pushes
9:43this capability forward and closer to its
9:45competitors in a pretty important way.
9:48That's pretty much all the features in
9:49desktop. Now there will be other features.
9:52I always like to highlight to people that
9:54this keynote and Devs On Stage is not the
9:56definitive list of what's coming this whole
9:58year.
9:59This is simply a little taste of some of
10:01the big items and they are chosen for a
10:04very reason that they demo well and they're
10:06easy to communicate.
10:08Imagine something more complex that would
10:09take longer just kill the vibe in the room.
10:12So the thing I look forward to is the list
10:14where Tableau showcase what's coming in the
10:17next version of Tableau.
10:19That is really the shipping point for these
10:21products. That is really where the beta
10:22drops and you start to kind of see what's
10:24coming and that's really what we should
10:25look out for in the next release.
10:27We might even get something that was
10:28announced at conference in that particular
10:30demo and if you're ever interested in
10:32seeing some of these features it's actually
10:34quite easy.
10:35Just join the Tableau pre-release program
10:37often they have programs within that pre-
10:39release setup to be able to try these things
10:42.
10:42If you want to try something and you know
10:43that other customers are trying it, well
10:45get in touch with your account manager, get
10:47in touch with whoever you need to.
10:49If you find the right people in the right
10:51contacts within Tableau you can often find
10:53your way to testing and helping improve
10:56features that are either coming or have
10:58been released but aren't documented.
11:00Therefore you don't know they're in the
11:02product to sort of get into it.
11:04These are all the ways you can get in and
11:06help out.
11:07Get on the community forums and make sure
11:09you give some feedback there as well. Those
11:12are actively being monitored and watched so
11:13go and check those out.
11:15But that's it, that's pretty much
11:16everything that was announced at conference
11:17.
11:18I'll do a separate video kind of rounding
11:19off my thoughts on the conference and we'll
11:22also do a Tableau Tim commentary on the
11:23whole keynote at some point this week.
11:26Thanks for watching and I'll catch you in
11:27the next one.
11:28[End of session]
11:38[ Silence ]
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