Creating Stream Graphs in Tableau 8 in 6 simple steps (it works in Tableau 7 too, but doesn’t look as cool) Today I attended Andy Kirk’s “Introduction to Data Visualisation” course, learning a lot about data visualization and constructing stories with data. One of the topics Andy covers is “Establishing editorial focus with your subject matter”. During this section Andy showed the now famous stream graph created by the New York Times which visualized box office receipts from 1986-2008. So at the next break I thought “Hmm…I wonder if I can build a stream graph in Tableau 8” and about 3 minutes later I had the basics built. First, you should know that Wikipedia defines a stream graph as “a type of stacked area graph which is displaced around a central axis, resulting in a flowing, organic shape.”
The NYT graph has nice smooth curves from one point to the next, however Tableau doesn’t support smoothed lines. Bearing this in mind, let me present you with my first stream graph. There are two particularly nice new features of Tableau 8. Try out the zoom controls. You might be asking how I did this. Tableau. Analyzing Time Series. Tableau. Broadcast Yourself. Discovering the Aha!'s In Your Data. Tableau Tip: How to Build a Combination Area Fill & Symbol Map. Preparing Data for Tableau: 1 of 3. Training.