Size encoding in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a visual report that shows sales performance by product category and region. They want to quickly see which categories and regions have higher sales volumes using size differences in the visualization.

📊 Data: You have monthly sales data including Product Category, Region, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard with a scatter plot where each point represents a product category in a region. Use size encoding to show total sales amount, so bigger points mean higher sales.

Sample Data

Month	Product Category	Region	Sales Amount
Jan	Electronics	North	12000
Jan	Furniture	North	8000
Jan	Clothing	North	6000
Jan	Electronics	South	15000
Jan	Furniture	South	7000
Jan	Clothing	South	9000
Feb	Electronics	North	13000
Feb	Furniture	North	8500
Feb	Clothing	North	6500
Feb	Electronics	South	16000
Feb	Furniture	South	7500
Feb	Clothing	South	9500

1

Step 1: Connect your sales data to Tableau and load the data source.

No formula needed; just connect the data source.

Expected Result

Sales data is available in Tableau for analysis.

2

Step 2: Create a new worksheet for the scatter plot.

No formula; just open a new worksheet.

Expected Result

Blank worksheet ready for visualization.

3

Step 3: Drag 'Product Category' to Columns shelf.

Columns: Product Category

Expected Result

Columns show product categories.

4

Step 4: Drag 'Region' to Rows shelf.

Rows: Region

Expected Result

Rows show regions.

5

Step 5: Create a calculated field to sum sales amount by category and region.

Calculated Field Name: Total Sales Formula: SUM([Sales Amount])

Expected Result

Total Sales field sums sales for each category and region.

6

Step 6: Drag 'Total Sales' to Size on the Marks card.

Marks card > Size: Total Sales

Expected Result

Point sizes vary by total sales amount.

7

Step 7: Change the mark type to Circle for better size encoding.

Marks card > Mark Type: Circle

Expected Result

Points appear as circles sized by sales.

8

Step 8: Add 'Total Sales' to Tooltip to show exact sales on hover.

Marks card > Tooltip: Add Total Sales

Expected Result

Tooltip shows total sales when hovering over points.

9

Step 9: Adjust size slider on Marks card for clear size differences.

Marks card > Size slider: Adjust for clarity

Expected Result

Size differences are visually clear and easy to compare.

10

Step 10: Create a dashboard and add this worksheet with a title 'Sales by Category and Region with Size Encoding'.

Dashboard > Add worksheet > Add title

Expected Result

Dashboard shows scatter plot with size encoding and title.

Final Result

Dashboard: Sales by Category and Region with Size Encoding

Region  | Electronics  Furniture  Clothing
------------------------------------------
North   |  ●●●●●●●●●  ●●●●●●    ●●●●
South   |  ●●●●●●●●●●●●  ●●●●●    ●●●●●

Legend: Larger circles mean higher total sales.

✓Electronics has the highest sales in both North and South regions, shown by the largest circles.

✓Furniture sales are smaller compared to Electronics but vary slightly by region.

✓Clothing sales are moderate and consistent across regions.

Bonus Challenge

Add color encoding to the scatter plot to show sales growth compared to the previous month.

Show Hint

Create a calculated field for sales growth percentage and drag it to Color on the Marks card.