Cycle Plot and how to identify trends according to seasonality in Tableau – Skill Pill Video

For some data analysts or C level managers, it is important to know how certain actions have performed over time, for example over a year, over a season or any other period. Sales managers, for example, are very excited about dashboards that expose the evolution and progress of sales or profit over certain periods of time. Based on these, they can make decisions about the next campaigns they should run, or which are the best-selling products in a certain period. In today’s post we will discuss how we can create a Cycle Plot in Tableau.

We stopped on this topic today because in most dashboards there is at least one chart that highlights trends or patterns in the data we have. Trends, most of the time, are the ones that provide quick information, especially from a visual point of view, on the way in which certain actions have evolved or progressed. Of course, this is not the first time in our blog section that we have discussed various charts in Tableau through which we can analyze trends in our data. Our blog section includes many useful tips and tricks that you can use to analyze data and visualize information in any form you need.

Why use a Cycle Plot?

A Cycle Plot is used when we want to visualize how a trend, or a cycle correlated with the day-of-the-week or the month-of-the-year evolved. A Cycle Plot is made to capture visually how certain values have advanced over a period. This type of chart is especially useful for identifying certain intervals or periods in which the best results are recorded. For example, we will use a Cycle Plot if we need to know which were the most profitable time slots on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, when our store had the highest number of visitors.

The advantage of using such a graph is given by the ease with which end users can identify certain trends or patterns in their data. Of course, this is a first step for a complete analysis, but it is a step that guides to identify data and situations with more importance. Last but not least, using a Cycle Plot, end users can more easily and quickly identify both outliers in data and insights for future actions.

Below you will see how you can build a Cycle Plot in Tableau.

Step 1: Connect to data

→ In Tableau Desktop, download data from Yahoo Finance.

Step 2: Create the visualization

→ Drag MONTH(Date) on Columns

→ Drag YEAR(Date) ) on Columns

→ Drag Open on Rows

→ Drag Open on Rows

→ Select Dual Axis

→ Select Synchronize Axis

→ Drag Volume on Color

By Eduard Arhire

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