Area charts in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Area charts

Dashboard Goal

Understand how sales change over months and compare product categories using area charts.

Sample Data

Month	Category	Sales
Jan	Furniture	200
Jan	Technology	300
Feb	Furniture	250
Feb	Technology	350
Mar	Furniture	300
Mar	Technology	400
Apr	Furniture	280
Apr	Technology	420

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 2500
• Area Chart 1: Monthly Sales Trend
  Details: Shows total sales per month.
  Calculation: Aggregate sales by month using SUM([Sales]).
  Chart type: Area chart with Month on X-axis and Sales on Y-axis.
• Area Chart 2: Sales by Category Over Time
  Details: Compares sales trends for Furniture and Technology.
  Calculation: Sales by Month and Category using SUM([Sales]).
  Chart type: Stacked area chart with Month on X-axis, Sales on Y-axis, and Category as color.
• Data Table: Sales Details
  Shows raw data for reference with columns Month, Category, Sales.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+---------------------------+
|      KPI Card        |      Area Chart 1          |
|   Total Sales: 2500  |   Monthly Sales Trend     |
+----------------------+---------------------------+
|                  Area Chart 2 (Stacked)             |
|               Sales by Category Over Time           |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
|                     Data Table                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

A filter for Category allows users to select one or both categories. When a category is selected, Area Chart 2 and the Data Table update to show only the selected category's data. The KPI Card and Area Chart 1 update to reflect total sales for the filtered data.

A filter for Month lets users focus on specific months. All components update accordingly to show data only for the selected months.

Self Check

If you add a filter to select only the Furniture category, which components update and what changes occur?

• KPI Card: Total Sales changes to 1030 (200+250+300+280).
• Area Chart 1: Shows monthly sales trend only for Furniture.
• Area Chart 2: Displays only the Furniture area, no Technology.
• Data Table: Shows only rows where Category is Furniture.

Key Result

Dashboard showing total sales and monthly sales trends by category using area charts with interactive filters.