How to create Connected Scatter Plots in Tableau – Skill Pill Video

Who is passionate about Scatter Plots? Certainly, many of us have a favorite chart or one that is our first choice when creating a view. Some of us may like maps, bar charts, pie charts, bubble charts or tree maps. Of course, there are some situations in which one graph fits better than another, depending on the data we want to represent. But we can’t help but admit that each of us has a favorite type of chart in Tableau. Today, we address those who always opt for a Scatter Plot. And we admit that today’s post is for scatter plots lovers. Moreover, we will show you how to build  connected scatter plots in Tableau.

First things first. A scatter plot is a graph that uses dots or bubbles to represent several values between two numerical variables, placed practically on two axes X and Y. Thus, each point or dot in the graph is associated with an individual value. We also talked about scatter plots in another post, but there we focused more on building an animated bubble chart.

What is a connected scatter plot in Tableau and how to create one?

A connected scatter plot allows us to visualize more easily the path followed by dots or bubbles. This path starts from the first value of a measure or other KPI and ends at its last value. A connected scatter plot helps us to easily identify several values, trends or outliers depending on the order in which they were recorded. If, for example, in our data set we have dimensions with several values, using a connected scatter plot we will be able to compare much easier what is the path or the progress of these values starting from two numerical variables.

On the other hand, a connected scatter plot helps us to identify the order of the values in the data set and the trend of their increase or decrease. Displaying orders ’value is done in Tableau according to a dimension chosen by us, such as year, month, week or something else. In this way, a connected scatter plot helps us to visualize the relationships between numerical variables in the data set and to build a story around our data.

The steps to be taken to build a connected scatter plot are mentioned below or in the video.

Step 1: Connect to data

→ In Tableau Desktop, connect to Tableau: World Indicators

Step 2: Create the visualization

→ Drag Energy Usage on Columns

→ Drag GDP on Rows.

→ Drag Region on Color.

→ Drag Country/Region on Detail.

→ From Marks, select Line.

→ Drag Year on Path.

By Eduard Arhire

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