Data Story Telling using Tableau: Loan Data from Prosper

Udacity Data Analyst Nanodegree December 2017 - May 2018. Project8 : Create a Tableau Story.

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Project Overview

For this project, I will create a data visualization using Tableau that tells a story or highlights trends or patterns in a data set. My work should be a reflection of the theory and practice of data visualization, such as visual encodings, design principles, and effective communication.

What do I need to install?

Before working on the project, I will need to have either Tableau Public or Tableau Desktop installed. I will need a software license to use Tableau Desktop.

Why this Project?

This project will touch on the overarching attitudes and beliefs important to effective data visualization, such as:

• visualization is a dialog
• showcasing and sharing visualizations with others
• visualization is a fluid process that typically requires multiple iterations of improvements

I will have an opportunity to experience the end-to-end process of creating effective data visualizations and highlighting important information from data that may otherwise be hidden or hard to uncover.

What will I learn?

After completing the project, I will be able to:

• Demonstrate the ability to choose optimal visual elements to encode data and critically assess the effectiveness of a visualization -Communicate a story or finding to the appropriate audience using interactive visualizations
• Undergo the iterative process of creating a visualization, and build interactive visualizations with Tableau

Why is this Important to my Career?

Data analyst are storytellers that can translate data findings that other people can easily understand. They view data visualization as an important form of communication.

If I, as a data analyst, can create visualizations to explore data, articulate clear findings to drive business decisions, or use data to elicit consensus from diverse perspectives, then I will be a deeply invaluable member on your team.

Project Details

Introduction

For the final project, I will create an explanatory data visualization from a data set that communicates a clear finding or that highlights relationships or patterns in a data set.

Step One - Choose a Data Set

I chose Loan Data from Prosper. Prosper is a peer-to-peer lending platform that aims to connect people who need money with those who have the money to lend.

Step Two - Get Organized

This repoository includes the following:

• Write-up: PDF or Markdown file that includes links to my Tableau Public workbooks, published online, and a write-up with four sections.
  • Summary: in no more than 4 sentences, briefly introduce the data visualization and add any context that can help readers understand it
  • Design: explain any design choices I made including changes to the visualization after collecting feedback
  • Feedback: include all feedback I received from others on my visualization from the first sketch to the final visualization
  • Resources: list any sources I consulted to create my visualization
• Data Files
  • the final data set used to create the visualization (usually .csv, .tsv, or .json file)

Step Three - Find a Data Story

Explore my data set and craft a message or story around your data! Think about the overall message I want to convey and think about the comparison(s) or relationship(s) I want my readers to see. Remember that I will ultimately need to create a visualization that is explanatory, helping lead a reader to identify one or more key insights into the dataset.

Step Four - Create Your Visualization

First, sketch ideas for your visualization. Once I settle on a sketch, explain any design choices in that sketch, such as chart type, visual encodings, and layout, in the Design section of the write-up. Then, create the visualization using Tableau. The visualization must include animation, interaction, or both.

Step Five - Get Feedback

Share the visualization with at least one other person and document their feedback. There are many ways to get feedback, and more feedback is generally better! Here are some options.

• Share your visualization with others in person and have them think aloud as they read and explore the graphic so I can document what stands out to them and how they interpret the graphic.
• Share a link to the project in the Data Analyst Nanodegree Slack and ask others to share constructive criticisms. Be sure to offer advice to others who are seeking feedback too!

I might need to ask specific questions to prompt the reader. Here are some questions to help me. You can, of course, ask others.

• What do you notice in the visualization?
• What questions do you have about the data?
• What relationships do you notice?
• What do you think is the main takeaway from this visualization?
• Is there something you don’t understand in the graphic?

Step Six - Document Feedback and Improve the Visualization

For each person that gives feedback, add the person’s feedback to the write-up file in the Feedback section. As I improve and iterate on the visualization, update the visualization AND describe any changes in the Design section of the write-up.

I should save multiple versions of your data visualization after I make changes to it. Remember to save related files with similar numbers.

My goal is to build evidence that I have shared the visualization, received feedback, and responded to that feedback. I need to submit an initial version of your data visualization and the final version with the corresponding write-up.