Visualizing Success: Transforming Disparate Data into a Dashboard that Tells a Story

Abstract

In 2018, SJSU Library completed a project to revamp our public dashboard, incorporating data visualization best practices using Tableau. This session will focus on the step-by-step process of implementing this project, from the first stages to a successful debut. After some preliminary research, we began by creating a prototype and gathering feedback from stakeholders. Next we cleaned and extracted our data from Alma Analytics and other sources. We’ll talk about how we got our data into Tableau, including the pros and cons of using the Web Data Connector. Next we created our visualizations in Tableau. We’ll explain why we chose the chart types we did, as well as some tricks to improve the quality and consistency of the vizzes. Lastly, and with the help of our Web Team, we set up a test server to check our final layout and functionality. We’ll also discuss how we managed our timeline and strategies for successful feedback with stakeholders.