Tableau Desktop Showcased at Conference - | Announced at Tableau Conference 2023

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 ]