Hi Louis,

A highlight Table I believe is a good representation of that data. However, the % do not make much sense as they do not add to 100 neither horizontally or vertically. Otherwise you can use two charts (or one chart and a viz in tooltip). For example, a bar chart by type of crime that works as a filter for a scatter plot with the boroughs.

May I ask you, are you intending to apply to The Data School? If that is the case, let me know and we can have a deeper chat about the dashboard. If you are not applying to The Data School and want feedback, let me know and I can give you some anyways.

Best,

Diego

Hi Louis,

I'm part of 12th cohort of The Data School and currently on my first placement. Because the company is committed to give feedback to all its applicants, sometimes people who already been through the training volunteer to help giving feedback. After having given feedback to a couple of applicants myself and seeing the applications of the last three cohorts, your viz instantly struck me as a DS application (in fact, the colours and layout remind me a lot of my first application).

I hope you are familiar with the whole process and have attended a Meet&Greet. If not, you can read something that Jack wrote explaining the different stages of the process https://www.thedataschool.co.uk/jack-parry/a-walk-through-guide-to-the-ds-application-process/

Before jumping straight into the feedback let me give you some advice:

- I would try to develop a more explanatory viz for the first stage. By this I mean something that tells a strong story by itself and that if it comes to the phone call stage then you can develop a bit deeper. In my case, my first application was very similar to what you are developing now and was unsuccessful https://public.tableau.com/profile/diego.parker#!/vizhome/ThegrowthofethnicminoritiesinLondon_DTPM_082018/DS13. The problem was that I tried to put a lot of information and make it very exploratory but when I was asked about the story of my viz I realised I had none. Hence, for my second application I made a much more explanatory viz, focused on the insights and made a very engaging story that I was able to explain easily during the phone call (this was particularly easy because I was very interested in the data as I studied International Relations) Tableau Public .

- Do #MakeoverMonday as this will help you improve your skills and get in Andy's radar who may have a big influence when choosing who gets in as hard work, perseverance and reception to feedback are key to success in the application. Also, a strong Tableau Public profile will raise your chances to get in!

- Have a look at the series of blog "What did it take to get into DS#?" and use it as benchmark -> https://www.thedataschool.co.uk/andy-kriebel/ds14/   (just change the number at the end for the other blog entry). Keep in mind this are mainly for the last stage which involves a presentation and therefore you may not need as much text as you will be there to talk through your viz. Some of these visualisations look amazing but keep in mind that most of us didn't know any Tableau beforehand so don't feel discouraged.

- Apply anytime you want, don't focus too much in the deadlines. In fact, apply as soon as you feel comfortable with your viz and don't worry toooo much as we (the company) will give you extra feedback if there are things to further improve.

Now about the viz itself:

- Keep attention to detail. Make sure your containers align and that your icons are not floating all over the place. Also, remove unnecessary lines and labels. Put them in containers instead! a good post about it was written by Ellie https://www.thedataschool.co.uk/ellie-mason/the-infinite-usefulness-of-containers/

- If you are going to ask questions in your title, make sure to give the answers too! you don't want your viewer having to do all the hard work. It would be even better to have a clear story line that makes it very intuitive. Maybe instead of looking at crime in London at a general level you could try to answer a question in your viz, something like "Why the central district has more crime than the others?"

- Also have a look at this post about legends, can give you interesting ideas to make more engaging legends.https://www.kenflerlage.com/2019/06/legends.html

- For each section/chart in your dashboard try to answer 'what's the point of this part?' 'what value is adding to the story?' Here I'm particularly questioning the map, why a map? is there a geographical analysis?

That's all for now!

Feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions. And good work on asking stuff in the forums!

Hope this has been helpful! If has, remember to mark the answer as helpful/correct, thanks!

Best,

Diego

Hi Louis,

No worries, glad to help!

I think a lot depends on how much in a hurry are you. A new cohort starts every 2-3 months so if you can't make it to the next one, there will be another one soon after that. Keep in mind that the application to the Data School depends solely on your visualisation so it is a good idea to look at what other people that got in had done before (you can look at their Tableau Public profiles).

Regarding your dashboard, I mentioned that question as an example but you may be able to find other stories by first exploring the data. However, maybe it may be easier for you to do a visualisation using a dataset that you are more interested (people use all sorts of datasets; coffe types, pokemon, frisbee, fifa, etc). Remember you can also use multiple datasets to strengthen your points. Maybe check kaggle or do some google around a topic you like! For example, I built my dataset from pdf reports of the eurobarometer. Datasets | Kaggle

A final point. A lot about this application and (hopefully) your future job using Tableau it is about having fun with it, so try to make this process a fun experience and then it can only be positive outcomes.

Best,

Diego