This is my 100th post. Today, I will focus the post on this blog. Although nobody ever asks me the questions I am about to answer, I want to commemorate my 100th post.
1. How did I last long enough for a 100th post?
The readership of this blog is nothing worthy of highlighting. A dashboard using the readership data will be boring. Admittedly, having people read the posts is nice, especially when the numbers are higher than usual. The little boosts from Tableau's Datafam Roundup help a lot.
a. DataFam Roundup: November 7-11, 2022 for How to Create Nested Circles (Onion Chart) in Tableau - My Way
b. DataFam Roundup: February 27 - March 3, 2023, for How to Create a Dendrogram in Tableau - My Way
2. Why do I write a blog?
Blogging seems like a thing of the past, at least among my social circle, as a hobby. However, blogging is obviously not dead as evident from the many more blogs out there on Tableau. And that is one of the reasons why I am keen to maintain a blog. By starting a blog, I am allowed to share my knowledge with others and help beginners to explore Tableau and data analytics in general. The many blogs out there have helped me many times when I am stuck on an issue. They are useful in inspiring us to continue to create data vizzes. Blogs that have inspired me include the ones by The Flerlage Twins and Toan Hoang, but are not limited to them, as there are others like MakeoverMonday on Youtube.
Another reason why I write a blog is that I want to record the things I have done. There are times when I have come up with new practices on data visualisation, but I forget how I have managed to do them when I relook at my vizzes. As such, I am keen on having a blog as a reference to be able to reuse methods that I have formulated. This has helped me when I need to recreate a viz again. Examples include the tutorials on creating a Radial / Circular Bar Chart and a Thermometer Chart.
Lastly, the blog also provides me with a space to experiment with charts and methods. Some of them like creating Colour Gradient Charts and a Beeswarm Chart, are done using experimental techniques on Tableau which I have submitted for competitions. This also includes the chart experiments that you can find using the Chart Experiment tag on this blog.
3. Why the name, Hide the Table?
I have spent quite a lot of time thinking up a blog name that I am happy with. I have decided to go with "Hide the Table" because that is what a data viz usually does. Data vizzes transform the numbers that are in Excel and csv files from their table formats into visuals that better tell stories. Hiding the data behind charts has given me the confidence to work with data as an Arts Graduate.
All in all, I am thankful for the guidance and mentions I have received on my data visualisation and analytics journey so far. This blog has helped me along the way quite a bit to note down my thoughts. Hopefully, this goes for another 100 posts!