Yes, I create this data visualisation a little while ago, and while hesitant about it, decided to write a nice, quick and simple tutorial about how you can create these in Tableau, so do enjoy and let me know how it goes?

Note: This is an alternative type of data visualisation, and sometimes pushed for by clients. Please always look at best practices for data visualisations before deploying this into production.

Data

Download and load the following data into Tableau Desktop / Tableau Public.

OrdersDownload

Note: If you have Tableau Desktop, just use your sample Superstore data source.

Calculated Fields

With our data set loaded into Tableau, we are going to create the following Calculated Fields:

Columns

RANDOM()

Random

RANDOM()*1

LOD_Bar Height

{FIXED [Region]: SUM([Sales])} / {FIXED : SUM([Sales])}

Rows

[Random]*[LOD_Bar Height]

Worksheet

We will now build our first worksheet:

  • Change the Mark Type to Circle.
  • Drag Region onto the Color Mark.
  • Drag Region onto Columns.
  • Drag Product Name onto the Detail Mark.
  • Drag Columns onto the Columns Shelf.
    • Right-click on this object and select Dimension.
  • Drag Rows onto the Rows Shelf.
    • Right-click on this object and select Dimension.
  • Drag Sales onto the Size Mark.

If all goes according to plan, you should see the following:

Now we will adjust the cosmetics:

  • Draw LOD_Bar Height onto Columns and convert to a Discrete Dimension.
    • Right-click on this object set the format to 1 Decimal Place Percentage.
  • Select Hide the Field Labels for Columns.
  • Format the Headers.
  • Hide the Row Dividers.
  • Hide the Column Dividers.
  • Hide the Grid Lines.
  • Hide the Zero Lines.
  • Set the Opacity to 50%.
  • Adjust the Size.

and if all goes well, you should now have the following:

Now to have some variation, swap the rows and columns:

or you can reverse the direction:

and boom, we are done, you can find my data visualisation on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/JitterBarChart/JitterBarCharts

Summary

I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it and as always do share the love. Do let me know if you experienced any issues recreating this Visualisation, and as always, please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @Tableau_Magic.

If you like our work, do consider supporting us on Patreon, and for supporting us, we will give you early access to tutorials, exclusive videos, as well as access to current and future courses on Udemy:

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19 COMMENTS

  4. Love this display. I have used it few times, and it was well received. However, I have a question. If, click on one of the marks and try to view the data, its says there is no data and is unable to export. Is there a reason for this, or perhaps I missed a step?

    Thanks!
    Aaron C Hough

  5. Hi Toan,

    I just checked again, and it happens when you select one of the circles and then click on view data. You can see the Summary View, but if you click Full Data, nothing is there. I’ve shown a few people at work and they also like it but they also couldn’t see the Full Data. If I remove the “Columns” and the “Rows” calculated fields the full data is available, but that ruins the cool viz.

  6. Dear Aaron,
    cc: Toan

    There is no issue with random(). Your data will show . The part you are missing is the action it is passing when clicked in Dashboard.
    Go to Dashboard>Actions>filter actions>(and choose here target filters you wish and abandon ‘row’ which is passing)

  7. Looks great!
    I do have an issue, when I upload workbook to the server (2019.3) it multiply the dots- I see 148 dots in Tableau Desktop (which is the correct number) but when I upload it to the server i see 330 dots.
    Anyone else had that issue? any solutions?
    Thanks in advanced!
    Aaron

  8. Hi Toan,

    Its a great and a cool viz., but it is not working on the new version upgrade(2020.2). Could you please help me with it.

    Thanks!
    Divya

  9. I’m trying to create this fantastic but also simplistic data viz but I do have a problem. The data source that I use is not allowed RANDOM() function. Do you know any workaround?

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