Hi Tim. That was an excellent review of this bewildering feature. I love Tableau Stories as one gets out precisely what was put in. in 'data story' you've highlighted what I think is a major issue with this feature which is one of authorship; both in the model and the text generated to describe the output. Developers focus on accuracy, grammar, format and tone and maximise the data visualisation experience through effective UI/UX whilst minimising distractions through verbose statements and text/table objects. Companies impressed by demos, salesmanship and headline features, buy tableau as their reporting solution but it is the developer who is responsible for delivering on the expectations. I wonder how this feature might impact on good dashboard design to visualise the data it is reporting on. The overheads to development and roll-out are increased with this feature too, as you've stated: - The developer's burden is greatly increased as they must configure each story and test for ambiguity to avoid explaining to an end user why they mis-interpreted something. - UAT will be prolonged but can still only test so much. - Stakeholder and Client training and support will become very involving as the new menu items are required by the service provider to be explained.
Feels like a feature looking for a reason to exist to be honest. Who is the target market for this? The experienced analyst will not trust the numbers without triple checking everything so doesnt save time or effort. Its too complex for the lay person to use. How clean and simple does the data need to be to be effective? Has this been trained using real data?
I think with this feature and Ask/Explain data it's not clear on who the feature is for and that's a frustrating trend at the mo with new releases. Demos are nice and slick but would we really expect a non technical user to start delving into explore data and get the most out of it?
I agree, the feature is a little strange. There is already something similar in caption function, but this is obviously more advanced. I just wonder if it also works that well in other languages :) If at all.
Definitely not too harsh. I loathe these walls of text, it’s just not a good way to consume and understand data. The accessibility point is valid though, but it’s often not a concern, since many business dashboards have a very limited audience.
Hello, I think when you initially set up the first story you could have moved sales in front of profit. The story would then have been the right way round.
Good point. I hadnt even clocked this nuance. I guess my point about work stands here. there's just so much finessing required I think I could probably write my own text faster.
Tim, I'm a fan of your work and insights, but believe you are being a little harsh in your critique of this feature. I actually don't disagree with any of your observations about the nascent version of the Data Stories feature. My perspective, however, is that the Tableau ecosystem is great at exploratory analysis for the data analyst, but it is more challenged in the explanatory analysis area. While a well-crafted chart should explain itself, often times the audience may require more text to explain and document certain insights. Whether this is a report in Word or a presentation in PowerPoint, exporting (or better yet linking text) to those platforms from Tableau can be helpful in explaining nuances of the analysis explored. For example, in PowerPoint, the exported (copied) text could be in presenter notes to help add context in a verbal presentation of a slide. Alternatively, a Word document may require more text in a report format that documents in greater detail what the scenarios, observations, etc indicate. Clearly, more work needs to be done to make this feature more user-friendly, but I personally believe Tableau might be on to something good here.
Interesting I guess if I put aside the work the author has to do to set this up and the space / tradeoff you have to make then it's a great first step. I still stand by general view that this feels like a departure form "See and understand data" Its not got any visual components in it at all. That said I did get a sense I was being harsh and I call that out too because I appreciate there are different kinds of users out there.
If you understand your data (which you will have to, to actually use the feature) would be far easier and quicker to write your own summary text which most of us have been doing before this feature. But it could dig you of a hole if you are struggling to put a sentence together. Overall too time consuming
Am I being too harsh about this feature? let me know your thoughts, Maybe I've completely missed the mark by approaching this as an author rather than an end user? As always Share feedback and Suggestions here: tableautim.canny.io/suggestions
No, you're saying what we're thinking. I'm pretty sure most people use Tableau to avoid writing things out. If an obvious conclusion can't be drawn from your viz and you need words to explain the main insight, then you're doing something wrong.
If anything, you were many not being harsh enough 😀 Writing this 2+ years after release and I don't think this feature got any updates from initial release. Where summarizing text is requested, I have started using Worksheet captions - they're pretty easy to set up and provide a lot more control than Data Stories. Love the summary and always insightful videos!
