About

In this section, we will be using Tableau to learn concepts on data outliers, seasonality effect, and the relationships and impacts. There is no R coding in this lab session.

Setup

This worksheet will be used to capture your images from Tableau and to share your observations. Example of capturing and including an image is included at the end of this sheet for your reference. You will need to log onto Tableau and Connect/Import the file EuroStore.xls found in the ‘bsad_lab10’ folder.

Remember to always set your working directory to the source file location. Go to ‘Session’, scroll down to ‘Set Working Directory’, and click ‘To Source File Location’. Read carefully the below and follow the instructions to complete the tasks and answer any questions. Submit your work to RPubs as detailed in previous notes.

Note

For your assignment you may be using different data sets than what is included here. Always read carefully the instructions on Sakai. Tasks/questions to be completed/answered are highlighted in larger bolded fonts and numbered according to their particular placement in the task section.

mydata = read.csv("data/EuroStore.csv")
head(mydata)
##   Week Sales   TV Radio Fuel.Volume Fuel.Price Temp Holiday
## 1   26 24864 74.5  66.5       61825     104.24 27.9       1
## 2   27 23809 74.5  66.5       62617     103.97 27.7       1
## 3   28 24476 90.0  75.0       60227     107.48 29.1       1
## 4   29 25279 90.0  75.0       63273     111.75 30.0       1
## 5   30 26263 90.0  75.0       65196     109.08 29.3       1
## 6   31 24299 90.0  75.0       64789     105.36 28.1       1

PART A: DATA OUTLIERS AND SEASONALITY EFFECT

First get familiar with the data and what each columns represent. A description of the data is provided in a seperate sheet called ‘Desc’ in the same Excel file. Refer to Lab05 for early exercise using Tableau.

In a new Tableau sheet

TASK 1: Plot Sales (Rows) versus Week (Columns). Include a snapshot here, e.g. #####. Analyse the data source and explain in clear words the behavior you observe.

ANSWER TASK 1:

The graph showed a relative levels of increases and decrease with a sudden dip in the middle of the graph.

TASK 2: Switch from SUM(Sales) to Average AVG(Sales). Change the Sales scale to be more reflective of the data. Include a snapshot here. Explain the new behavior relative to 1A).

ANSWER TASK 2:

The sudden dip in the middle is removed when we observe the average.

TASK 3: Add Temp to the Color scale found in Marks. Change SUM(Temp) to AVG(Temp). Edit the color legend to be more reflective of hot and cold temperatures. Include a snapshot here. Explain the combined behavior of sales and temperature.

ANSWER TASK 3:

The higher the sales got the darker the color become. When sales started to decrease the color also started to get lighter.

PART B: RELATIONSHIPS AND IMPACTS

In a seperate Tableau sheet

TASK 4: Plot Sales (Rows) versus TV (Columns). Switch both measures from SUM() to Dimension. The plot should look more like a scatter plot. Include a snapshot here. Explain the behavior of Sales versus TV. How much you think is the upper limit amount that should be invested in TV ads?

ASNWER TASK 4:

An increase in TV does not mean an increase in sales. There were a lot of sales points when TV was equal to 0. Even when TV increased the sales showed little to no increase.

TASK 5: Overlay Radio to the previous plot using the Size. scale found in Marks. Include a snapshot here. Explain how the additional Radio ads to Tv ads is impacting Sales.

ANSWER TASK 5:

In the beginning radio influenced sales more than tv. An increase in TV does not really mean an increase in sales since the plots were scattered pretty even across the graph.

In a separate Tableau sheet

TASK 6: Plot Sales versus Fuel Volume. Switch both measures from SUM() to Dimension. Explain behavior.

ANSWER TASK 6:

An increase in fuel volumn only moderately increases sales. Most of the points were located in the middle of the graph.

TASK 7: Overlay Temperature using the Color scale. Follow TASK 3 for temperature settings. Explain the new combined behavior and the impact of temperature.

ANSWER TASK 7:

The higher the sales and fuel volumn was the more darker blue circles were present. The lower the sales and fuel volumn the more light blue circles were present.

TASK 8: Overlay Holiday using the Label scale. Include a snapshot here. Explain the new combined behavior and the impact of Holiday.

ASNWER TASK 8:

When sales and fuel volumn were both high hoilday contained mostly 1s. Most of the 0 were present when there was low sales.

In a separate sheet

TASK 9: Use a Tree Map to best show the combined effect of Sales, Fuel Volume, Temp, and Holiday. A sample view is shown below. Consider using the Quick Filter on Holiday and Temp to isolate and better view the impact of each. You can have more than one filter at a time. Include a snapshot here.
TASK 10: Write a small paragraph summarizing your final conclusions on what you think most affect Sales and under what conditions.

ASNWER TASK 10:

The thing the affected sales the most was temp. The darker the color blue the box was the higher the sales amount in those boxes. The lowest sales figures were also located in the lighter colored boxes.