I was recently designing a dashboard using data from Makeover Monday about Slavery in 2023. After finishing up the design I wanted feedback on the design. So I went to other people at The Information Lab.
I got feedback that some more context about the data was needed. This got me thinking about the best way to do this.
I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really want massive blocks of text and I would prefer that the extra information would be hidden until the user wanted to see this.
To do this I looked around on tableau public for how other users have overcome this issue, and I found that people have been using an information button.
To do this you first need to download some images without a background. I downloaded 2 clip art i’s with no background 1 black, 1 white.
You first need to create a folder in your shapes folder in ‘My Tableau Repository’. I called this ‘Information Button’. Then drag the downloaded images into this folder.
After this has been done go into tableau and create a new sheet.
Change the chart type to shapes. And create a calculated field with the value 1. This will create 1 mark on the view when dragged onto either the row or column shelf.
Then click the shapes icon on the marks card and click more shapes. If you haven’t opened tableau since creating the information button folder in the repository, you will need to click ‘Reload Shapes’. If you have opened tableau since you do not need to do the previous step.
Then click the drop down Shape Palette and select whatever you have called the folder.
Then Assign Palette and you then have your information button. You can make this button have information hidden in a tooltip or set up actions so that it will pop up with extra information when selected.
If you want to see how I have used these information buttons have a look at my dashboard. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/alfie.king/viz/Slaves_17332252314560/Dashboard1
I hope this helps