Week 12: Sub-Category Sales Change in the Last Two Periods

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Luke is out for the next month so this week 2016 IronViz Champion Curtis Harris is filling in. Here is Curtis’s post:

I’ve heard this question many times in my career after presenting a completed viz to a stakeholder at work, “That’s fantastic, but compared to what?” So even if it is not directly requested, I’m started to build in comparisons into a lot of my work. One comparison that is commonly requested is something like, “How is x doing this period, compared to the same period last month/quarter/year?” For this week’s Workout Wednesday, we’ll be doing exactly that… have fun!

Requirements

  • Dashboard size should be 600×700.
  • The Change field should be displayed as a number, not a string.
  • Sub-Category should be sorted ascending by Change.
  • Tooltips should match exactly.
  • Prior Month and Most Recent Month should always be matching days, for example: If the max order date is 6/15/2017: the most recent month range should be orders between 6/1/2017-6/15/2017 and the prior month range should be 5/1/2017-5/15/2017.
  • Make sure your audience knows the dates in question by providing a note about the date ranges above the viz, and make sure that the date range displays match the colors of the dots in the viz..
  • Display the x-axis on top of the viz, and use the traditional x-axis space for a color legend.
  • Show the mark label on hover *for the most recent month only*. If the value for the most recent month is *lower* than the prior month, the mark label should be displayed to the left of the dot. If the value for the most recent month is *higher* than the prior month, the mark label should be displayed to the right of the dot.

This week utilizes the superstore dataset. You can get it here at Data.World

As you complete this example, feel free to share on Twitter using the #WorkoutWednesday hashtag. Don’t forget to tag @RodyZakovich, @LukeStanke, and @Harris7Curtis. We really want to see your work.

Hints

If you get hung up on the date filtering, open a new sheet and simple display every single order date in a table. Seeing the dates filter in and out of view will really help you build the proper functionality and when you get it right, simply apply that logic to the main view.

Also, if you want your efforts throughout 2018 tracked, feel free to fill out this Google Form.

Good luck!

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