Advance with Assist: Highlighting Points of Interest

Question: I want to allow my user to easily see a custom value that is connected to a highlighted point on my time series chart. How can I do this in a way that can also interact with a dashboard action to give these values more prominence and context for the user?

Client Scenario

You have a time-series chart that shows a metric over time, and you want your user to be able to select a custom point of interest (POI) and be able to show the value that is highlighted prominently. For example, imagine we want a user to be able to view sales for a given month in the past and have a separate scorecard dedicated to that POI. What we want can be seen below:

Here’s what we currently have:

Here’s what we need:

1. A parameter for the point of reference
2. A highlight action for the reference line
3. Three calculated fields

The Parameter

The highlight date is what will be placed on the chart and defined by the user as a point of interest:

The Reference Line for Context 

This reference line will use the Highlight Date parameter:

Calculated Fields in Tableau

Lookup Value: The number of periods (months) between your reference point and your current period, or the end of your dataset:

Lookup Highlight Point: The number of periods (months) between your reference point and your current period, or the end of your dataset:

Show Value T|F: A Boolean field that will allow you to show the current lookup value on a separate sheet:

Set up the Context Scorecard

Here are the steps for setting up your scorecard:

1. Create a new sheet
2. Add Lookup Highlight Point to the Marks card as Text and compute using Cell
3. Add your date field to Detail (MONTH, in this case)
4. Add Show Value T|F to the Columns shelf and compute using Cell
5. Filter Show Value T|F to show False only
6. Uncheck Show Header on Show Value T|F

Voila! Your context scorecard is ready. Now, bring this onto your dashboard. With this approach, you could also do comparisons to other periods of interest or the current period:

I hope you find this helpful! If you need help like this, reach out and get InterWorks Assist on your team!

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