If you’ve ever encountered the challenge of guiding users through a multi-dashboard workbook, you know how important it is to have intuitive navigation. Tableau’s navigation features enable users to easily move across dashboards, tabs, and stories within a workbook.Â
In this blog, we will provide a step-by-step process to implement navigation into your dashboards, ensuring a functional and user-friendly experience. I’ll even throw in some quick tips along the way.
Why Does Navigation Matter?
First and foremost, including navigation in your Tableau dashboards will improve the user experience. A well-designed navigation system enhances the dashboard’s usability by allowing users to move between dashboards/sheets more easily. It also gives your dashboard a more professional look and feel.Â
Second, when used correctly, navigation buttons or actions can also positively impact the performance of your dashboard. And last, it’s scalable. As your data grows and becomes more complex, or the need to provide a more vast dashboard becomes more apparent, allowing your users to jump between views with intuitive ease becomes even more crucial.
How to: Navigation Using Navigation Buttons
Step 1 – Navigate to the left-hand Dashboard pane. In the Objects section, add a container to your dashboard.
Either of the Container options will work; choose based on your dashboard’s layout. In this example, we use a Horizontal Container to put the navigation buttons side by side.
Step 2 – Scroll to Navigation in the same Objects section. Drag this object into the container you just placed.
Step 3 – After you have added your Navigation objects to the container on your dashboard, you can choose where each button brings you in your workbook. You may need to adjust the height of your container to fit each Navigation object. Once the buttons are added, you can format each and readjust the container size.
To edit the format, click on each button, then click the More Options downward arrow, then Edit Button… In this section, you can now choose where each button will navigate to, the style (Text or Image), the title, the font, and if you want to add a border or background color.
Quick tip #1: Click one of your navigation buttons, then double-click the tab on the top to select the entire container. From here, you can distribute the contents of the container evenly or adjust the height/width as needed.
Step 4 – To show the dashboard the user is currently on, add a text object into the horizontal container with the label of this tab (as opposed to another navigation button). After formatting your navigation buttons and this text object, they could look something like this:
Quick Tip #2: Using a different color background to denote which sheet/tab is currently in view helps the user track exactly where they are on the dashboard.
How to: Navigation Using Dashboard Actions
Step 1 – In the top menu bar, click Dashboard and then scroll down to Actions…
From here, you will be presented with the options box below.
Step 2 – In this option box, you can use a dashboard Action to navigate across your dashboard/workbook. The default action affects the whole workbook, but you can also choose to have it affect a single sheet. Since we are using the action for navigation, we will stick to the default This workbook.
To begin, click on the Add Action button. You can add many action types, but we will focus on the Go to Sheet… option.Â
Step 3 – After selecting Go to Sheet, the Add Go to Sheet Action option box will pop up. From here, give your new action a name that corresponds with where the action will take you, choose the source sheet (which dashboard object will move you around the dashboard), the Target Sheet of where the navigation will bring you, and finally, how the action will occur using the Run action on selection. The default for this option is Select. We recommend keeping this as is; it is the most intuitive.
In my example below, clicking on the Total Profit source sheet (KPI), Tableau will bring me to the selected Target sheet, Profit Dashboard.
Quick tip #3:Â While testing out the action you just created, hold down the Alt key (PC) or the Option key on a Mac while clicking on the Source sheet to bring you directly to the Target sheet.
Step 4 –Â Now that your action is set up, click on your source object and watch the magic happen!
For more inspiration, check out a few of phData’s dashboard examples that demonstrate how navigation features can elevate the user experience:
Closing
In conclusion, effective navigation is crucial in creating a user-friendly experience.
Using Tableau’s navigation features can significantly enhance the user experience, improve dashboard performance, and create and provide a more scalable solution.
Whether using the navigation button objects or an action, these features allow users to move about a dashboard easily. By following the steps and tips outlined in this blog, you are ready to create a professional, easy-to-follow navigation system to advance the quality and usability of your Tableau dashboards.
If you need additional assistance or guidance in optimizing your Tableau dashboards or implementing advanced features, reach out to our team of experts.
FAQs
Can I create a custom navigation bar?
Yes. You can navigate to a specific sheet or dashboard using a text object or overlaying button objects configured to an action.
What are some best practices to follow when adding navigation to my dashboard?
Keep the format consistent across all navigation objects. Including the height/width, border, background, and font.
Use clear, descriptive labels for all navigation objects.
Indicate your current view/sheet by differentiating the selected navigation button (e.g., using a different background color for the current page).
Test all navigation buttons/actions before publishing any of your work.
Are navigation features mobile-friendly?
Yes, Tableau allows one to create device-specific layouts.
Use the Device Preview feature to see how your navigation buttons look for different devices.
Create separate dashboard versions with the correct parameters if multiple layouts are needed.
