Public health marketers need to have data in a visual format to engage stakeholders and get funding. But they will often start with complex data from different sources that need to be synced in order to obtain reportable results. Data visualization programs such as Tableau can help public health marketers organize and present data in ways that more clearly convey its meaning to a range of audiences, including funding agencies and members of the public more broadly.
The Data
One of the useful features of Tableau is the variety of file types it will accept. Unlike other data visualization programs, Tableau can input data from formats such as text files, PDFs, and JSON. This versatility in design is helpful when aggregating data from different state agencies that might not use the same format. And connecting data from various agencies in this way can help you identify meaningful, local trends.
Visualization
There are a number of ways that you can use tableau to organize and visualize your data, from line and bar charts to scatter plots to geographic mapping. In fact, Tableau even recommends different formats based on the type of data you enter into the field. There are also useful features such as colorization, labeling, and sizing that can further aid in data presentation and clarity.
Too often data comes from different sources and needs to be pieced together to get results. Tableau is a useful tool for visualizing and aggregating data. Effective data visualization is important for public health marketers to get their message across, reach their audience, and gain funding.