Overview

Tableau Public is an online community for Data Storytellers that attracting journalists, students, news anchors, scientists, business owners and everyday data loving people. Users on Tableau Public get to use Tableau’s novel technology offering to answer their data questions for free.

In 2016, I worked as the primary designer for Tableau Public’s Product team. In that period, I led designs for several features within the product. Two exciting examples involved:

Improving the iFrame embed experience for Charts built in Public.
Setting a vision for Long-form Storytelling with data.

Design Team

I was the lead Product designer working alongside Product Management and Engineering teams across Palo Alto, Seattle and Vancouver.

iFrame Embed

Design Challenges

Users are not constrained to viewing Tableau Charts primarily on Tableau Server, users can also view Tableau Charts on website with embedded charts. We had to design and present these embedded charts in a way that represents Tableau’s brand and meets users preferences. I ended up designing a slim minimalist toolbar for Tableau embedded charts.

Design Approach

Discovery & Research: From research focused on Tableau Public users, we discovered an opportunity to improve the consumption experience of embedded charts.

Design Kickoff & Exploration: worked with a collaborative cohort across Design, PM and Engineering to come up with an execution and validation plan. Shared design explorations with this group regularly through the life of the project.
Design Critique & Customer Evaluation: I shared mockups of varying fidelity to facilitate design conversations with our customers and other stakeholders, aimed at validating design decisions.
Production Design: Churned out high fidelity design specs and worked alongside engineering team to implement designs.

Data long-form Storytelling

Design Challenges

My team was tasked with setting forth the vision to create a destination for people to discover and tell data stories in Tableau Public. Data charts in itself conveys a level of storytelling. Nonetheless, through research we found that accompanying text dynamically synced with states in a chart, does a better job in data storytelling. I set out to explore an interaction model that was meaningful to our community of users, and scalable across use-cases.

Design Approach

Discovery & Research: We took a look at the market landscape and customer feedback channels to get a sense of potential areas of value-add in the Public experience. At the time, Data Storytelling stood out from our findings. I worked with a research and engineering team to narrow down on use-cases that fit uncovered areas of need.

Design Exploration: worked with a collaborative cohort across Design, PM and Engineering to come up with an execution and validation plan. Shared design explorations with this group regularly through the life of the project.
Design Critique & Customer Evaluation: I shared mockups of varying fidelity to facilitate design conversations with our customers and other stakeholders, aimed at validating design decisions.
Production Design: Churned out high fidelity design specs and worked alongside engineering team to implement designs.