On my way home from the London Tableau User Group (TUG) I was looking at Twitter and got inspiration from Kevin Flerlage (@FlerlageKev) and Rajeev Pandey (@rajvivan), so I thought I would design and write up my own version of this visualisation, please welcome the Daisy Chart.

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 into production.

Data

Load the following data into Tableau Desktop / Public.

MetricPathValuePosition
United States10.81
United States3600.81
United States10.81.5
United States3600.81.5
United Kingdom10.21
United Kingdom3600.21
United Kingdom10.21.5
United Kingdom3600.21.5
Canada10.551
Canada3600.551
Canada10.551.5
Canada3600.551.5

Note: we need four records for each Country as we are going to be drawing lines and using densification to get more points on our view. For more information, check out our article on Data Densification.

Calculated Fields

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

Create Path (bin)

  • Right click on Path, go to Create and select Bins…
  • In the Edit Bins dialogue window:
    • Set New field name to Path (bin).
    • Set Size of bins to 10.
    • Click Ok.

Index

INDEX()-1

TC_Value

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Value]))

TC_Position

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Position]))

X

SIN(RADIANS([Index]*(360/WINDOW_MAX([Index]))))*[TC_Position]

Y

COS(RADIANS([Index]*(360/WINDOW_MAX([Index]))))*[TC_Position]

Zero

0

Color

IF [Index] < (WINDOW_MAX([Index])*[TC_Value]) THEN
    IF [TC_Value] >= 0.8 THEN
        "Green"
    ELSEIF [TC_Value] <= 0.2 THEN     
        "Red"
    ELSE
        "Amber"
    END
ELSE
    "Grey"
END

Note: We are hardcoding the colors thresholds.

So now that we have created a lot of Calculated fields, we will now put this together into a Worksheet.

Worksheet

We will now build our worksheet:

  • Change the Mark Type to Line.
  • Drag Metric onto the Color Mark.
  • Drag Metric onto the Columns Mark.
  • Drag Path (bin) onto Columns.
    • Right-click onto this object and ensure that Show Missing Values is checked.
    • Drag this object onto the Detail Mark.
  • Drag Position onto the Path Mark.
    • Right-click on this object and select Dimension.
  • Drag X onto Columns.
    • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).
  • Drag Y onto Rows.
    • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).

If all goes well, you should have the following:

We will now make a few adjustments.

  • Drag Color onto the Color Mark.
    • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).
  • Drag Zero onto Rows.
    • Right-click on the object and select Dual Axis.
  • In the Y Mark Panel.
    • Remove Measure Names from the Color Mark.
  • In the SUM(Zero) Mark Panel.
    • Change the Mark Type to Circle.
    • Remove Measure Names from the Color Mark.
    • Drag Zero onto the Size Mark.

You should now see the following:

Now we will adjust the cosmetics:

  • Set the Grid Lines to None.
  • Set the Row Divider to None.
  • Set the Column Divider to None.
  • Hide the X-Axis.
  • Hide the Y-Axis.
  • Edit the Colors.
  • Increase the Size of the Circle.
  • Add a Label to the Circle.
  • Add Transparency to the Circle.

If all goes well, you want to end up with the following:

and boom we are done… we have successfully created this fun data visualisation. You can find my data visualisation on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/DaisyCharts/DaisyChart

Extra Credit: Try changing the value Path (bin) and see the results, and adjust the size of the Line Mark.

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.

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15 COMMENTS

  2. Dear Toan!

    Thank you for the great inspiration and invaluable insights you share with us, Tableau enthusiasts and lovers!
    I try to learn as much as I can from the stuff, but in some cases I just get lost while trying improve the versions you’ve already built. As there was no option of giving feedback and ask questions under the topic I’m interested in, I write it down here. Namely, could you please help me with the Pointed Radial Chart. I got it working fine (though there were some things I had to figure out first), but I’d like to add an option of choosing target group for the chart – ie option that the radials would be drawn for the whole population and for those who plan to buy a new car, for example. I figured out that it has to do with calculation of Index measure, but I can’t quite find the right formula, so I’m hoping you might point me to the right direction with that.

    Thank you already in advance!

    • Hi Külli,

      Yes, it will require a little more manipulation if you want to make this dynamic and to work on your data with filters. Without knowing your data, you will have to look at the WINDOW_MAX calculations, and also to turn them in Context Filters. If you can, email me at admin@tableau.toanhoang.com and I will try to have a look.

      Kind Regards,
      Toan

  3. This was terriffic. I liked this however i wanted to i am having my own data how can i perform the operations on my data please let me know. That would be really helpful.

  4. Thank you Toan will wait for your response. I think the concept is more important – because if i understand the concept than i can visualise any kind of data and plot daisy chart. Will be waiting for your response. Thanks again in advance

  6. Hello, here two calculations need edit TC_Value and TC_Position. Both should be divided by 4 as shown in Youtube video.
    I tried with all the calculations above but result was not coming correct and after seeing the video realised both should be divided by 4

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