Tableau 2020.1 is in Beta now and one of the hot new featurs is animations, or more accurately described a as “mark transitions”. This will no doubt introduce a new debate of best practices for applying this new-to-Tableau preattentive attribute. The best course of action is to develop a strategy now as to when, where and how you use this powerful new tool in the toolbox.
Questions to ask yourself when using animations:
Does this animation add to the narritive?
Generally, annimations should be used if there is a transition from one “state” to the next. I would add to this idea, that the transition in “state” is so great that it cannot be followed WITHOUT the animation. Are there new entries in the data that appear, or are there large swings in the volume of particular data points? This is particulatly effective in the litney of “Bar Chart Races” we’ve seen as of late. Animation inside a ranking visualization works well, where as something like a scatter plot, may or may not work depending on the execution.
Can it work with a scatter chart? Sure! Two use-cases spring to mind. The first would be in an instance where youa re tracking millions of points over time, and you want to see or animate a large migration of points from one status/state to another. A great example of this is Hans Rosling’s TED talk, partially seen here:
The other use-case would be that you are tracking a single point, maybe as a leading indication of something that maybe happening. You would highlight/annotate/label that point, and track it’s particular movement amongts that masses.
What you don’t want to do is set off a scatter chart and things just start moving madly around the screen with no rhyme or reason!
Does the animation distract from the overall message?
Don’t animate everything! Below is a rediculous example where I have animated every sheet. The result, the user doesn’t know where to look, what to be concerned with, or why things are moving. What they end up relly seeing, is just the end state, so the effectiveness of the animation is lost. If you are animating a visualiztion simply because “it’s there”, do you users a favor and rethink that application.
Are there some things that you probably shouldn’t animate? I think so. Pie charts (these won’t animate in the 2020.1 release and Gantt charts spring to mind. Bubble charts may fall in to this category too. Again, it depends. The use-case in your particular sphere of work may make a lot of sense to animate one of these.
For those compay with a Stlye Guide, I’d recommend coming up with some guidance now. Best times to use animations, examples of good animations, and some “bad examples” can go a long way to make this new feature of Tableau effective and raise the user experience to new, higher levels.
Thoughts? Please add to the comments below!