Shape encoding in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Shape encoding

Business Question

How can we use different shapes in a Tableau dashboard to quickly identify product categories by their sales performance?

Sample Data

Product Category	Sales	Region
Furniture	150000	East
Technology	300000	West
Office Supplies	90000	East
Furniture	120000	West
Technology	250000	East
Office Supplies	110000	West
Furniture	130000	South

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales calculated as SUM([Sales]). Result: 1,150,000
• Shape-Encoded Scatter Plot: Sales by Product Category and Region with shapes representing product categories:
  • Furniture: Circle
  • Technology: Square
  • Office Supplies: Triangle
  Axes:
  • X-axis: Region
  • Y-axis: Sales
  Tooltip shows Product Category, Sales, and Region.
• Sales Table: Detailed table showing Product Category, Sales, and Region for all rows.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+---------------------------+
|      Total Sales      |   Sales by Category &     |
|       (KPI Card)      |       Region (Scatter)    |
+----------------------+---------------------------+
|                  Sales Table (Detailed)             |
+-----------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

A filter for Region allows users to select one or multiple regions. When a region is selected, the KPI card, scatter plot, and sales table update to show data only for the selected region(s). This helps users focus on sales performance in specific areas.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Region = East, which components update and what data do they show?

• KPI Card: Updates to show total sales for East region only (150,000 + 90,000 + 250,000 = 490,000).
• Scatter Plot: Shows only points for East region with shapes for Furniture, Technology, and Office Supplies.
• Sales Table: Displays only rows where Region is East.

Key Result

A Tableau dashboard using shape encoding to distinguish product categories in sales data by region.