5 Tiny Ideas to improve Tableau Public
Back in December, I posted a guide to submitting feature requests in the forums, aka submitting an Idea. Fresh off of Tableau Conference, I’m really looking forward to the improvements coming to Tableau Public.
As excited as I am for those improvements, there are still little things that would make my experience better. Now, are these Ideas big enough to warrant time at Devs on Stage? No. But I firmly believe no Idea is too small, and little improvements add up to a greater whole. I’ve submitted 15 Ideas so far, and 4 have been implemented. Check out some of my open Ideas below, and give them a vote if they’d improve your day in Tableau Public.
1. Display Confirmation message when publishing from web edit
When publishing from web edit on Tableau Public, after hitting the “publish button” there is not an obvious indicator that the publish was successful. It would improve the user experience to display a short banner message indicating that the save was successful, similar to how there is a pop up when there is an error. This would save me opening my viz in a new tab to double check if the changes I made were applied.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000IDQFAA4/detail
2. Tableau Public: Sort Search results by # of Favorites
Tableau Public currently allows users to sort search results by:
- Relevant
- View Count
- Recently Published
I would like to request another option, to sort by # of favorites. Why? Allowing another slice of search results will surface different results.
Here is an example use case-I am looking on Tableau Public for good examples of using a parameter to choose dates. I’m hoping to find a viz that is popular with the community for teaching this concept, or one that folks have bookmarked as a resource. I search using the term “Date Parameter”. The “Relevant” results include many vizzes with the words “Date Parameter” in the title — but the first page of results has many vizzes with zero favorites and very low views. Sorting the views by “View Count” shows me vizzes with millions of views-likely as a result of being embedded in public facing news sites. Sorting by “Recently Created” also doesn’t surface results I’m looking for — because it’s most recent, it looks like a lot of work in progress vizzes.
Allowing to sort by # of favorites would surface vizzes that many community members have found either inspirational or useful as a resource. It would allow me to refine my searches easier, and find what I’m looking for on Tableau Public quicker.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000IDE1AAO/detail
3. Clarify the “Updated Date” field on Tableau Public
Currently, on Tableau public, there are two dates available on published vizzes, the Published Date, and Updated date.
The published date seems to accurately reflect the day a viz was first published. It is unclear what the “updated” date means. Multiple users report seeing a viz “updated” when no change has been made. It’s also unclear if the viz itself was modified, or if the data powering the viz was refreshed.
Clarifying what “updated date” means, will help not only current users of the platform, but also casual browsers. The more clear it is browsing things on Public, the easier it will be for folks to understand and trust system fields internally on Tableau Server or Cloud.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000EvFcAAK/detail
4. Make Viz of the Day nomination badge persistent when clicked
Nominating a viz for Viz of the Day is now one click, which is fantastic. When clicked, the badge turns yellow. However, after I refresh the page, the nomination badge goes back to it’s normal uncolored state, so I cannot see if I have already nominated a viz for viz of the day.
It would be great if the badge could be persistent, and if there was some sort of way I could view all the vizzes I had nominated in a collection.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000My3HAAS/detail
5. Tableau Public — “Update Product” link should go to the download
The link in “Update Product” does not go to actually download the product. The link redirects to https://www.tableau.com/products/public, and there are no actual direct links to download Tableau Public on that page. The Update Product link should go to https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/download/thanks — as that is the link to actually download Tableau Public.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000MwyrAAC/detail
Bonus Idea: Allow dismissal of upgrade banner in Tableau Public
The latest version of Tableau Public includes a non-dismissable blue banner across the top of the window with an indicator on the left that says the product is Tableau Public Desktop, and a call to action in the upper right to upgrade to the paid version of Tableau Desktop.
I understand having a call to action for the paid product, however the bar takes up a full toolbar’s worth of space (taller than the default column or row pill shelf) which takes away from the available canvas space. This is especially frustrating when working with Tableau Public on a laptop with a small screen, as the working area has been shrunk without a value add to the end user.
I propose making the banner dismissible, giving back the space to end user.
Vote here: https://community.tableau.com/s/idea/0878b000000EvvuAAC/detail
Closing Thoughts
Maybe some of these Ideas would make your user experience better, maybe some you don’t care about. That’s fine! There are lots of great open Ideas — have a browse and throw some votes towards ones that would make your day just a bit better. At time of writing, 1327 features from the Ideas forum have been released — that’s 11.5% of all submissions. One of my favorite released Ideas was one I submitted to improve the Ideas Viz itself, which makes it easier to browse open feature requests.
Give it a view, and get voting! https://community.tableau.com/s/ideas-viz
