Data Visualization of Uber Rides with Tableau | by Vanessa Leung | Towards Data Science

This piece of work is inspired by the plotly demo sample New York Uber Rides. But we are going to do it in Tableau without writing a single line of code.
You can find my work on my Tableau page here.
This visualization creates a view of Uber rides in New York City from April to May in 2014. It aims to provide consumers insights on how the number of Uber rides changed within different day periods on different days in a month, in different NYC neighborhoods.
We use a map to display the distribution of rides geographically and a histogram to display the rides distribution among hours of the day.
We will use the data provided by FiveThirtyEight.
You can find how to link data sources to Tableau here.
Drag Lat and Lon from Measures to Columns and Rows to draw a map.
We want to create a dark theme for our map like most map visualizations do.
2.1. Select Map -> Map Layers
2.2. Change Background style to Dark.
2.3. Select Streets, Highways, Routes, Cities in Map Layer.
The map now shows more info about the geography.
3.1. Drag Date/Time from Dimensions to Marks -> Color
3.2. Click the dropdown button on the right side of Date/Time in the Marks section, select More -> Hour
3.3. Click Color -> Edit Color, select Color Palette Green-Gold, click Assign Palette
3.4. Click Color -> Effects -> Border -> None
Now the map is clearer with high contrast color.
We want to add filters to our map for users to choose specific dates and times.
4.1. Drag Date/Time from Dimensions to Filters, select Month/Day/Year, click All
4.2. Click the dropdown button on the right side of MDY(Date/Time) in the Filters section, click Show Filter
4.3. Click the dropdown button on the right side of MDY(Date/Time) on the sheet, select Single Value (drop down)
Now, we’re done with the map chart.
Open a new sheet to create the histogram.
1.1. Drag Date/Time(Hours) from Dimensions to Columns, drag Number of Records from Measures to Rows.
1.2. Click on the axis name Number of Records, deselect Show Header
1.3. Click on the axis name Date/Time on the sheet, select Hide Labels
We will use the same color theme as the map.
2.1. Drag Date/Time(Hours) from Dimensions to Marks -> Color
2.2. Drag Number of Records from Measures to Marks -> Label
2.3. Right-click on the histogram, select Format -> Lines -> Grid Lines -> Select None
2.4. Right-click on the histogram, select Format -> Shading -> Worksheet -> Select Black
We’re done with the histogram.
Now we want to create a dashboard to display the map and histogram together.
Click on the dashboard, click Format -> Dashboard -> Dashboard Shading -> Default -> Select Black
Drag Sheet 1 (Map) and Sheet 2 (Histogram) to the dashboard, with the histogram at the bottom.
Right-click on the sheet titles respectively, click Hide Title
1.1. Click on the Month, Day, Year of Date/Time filter, click Apply to Worksheets, select All Using Related Data Sources. So that we can delete the Date/Time (Hours) legend for Sheet 2 (Histogram).
1.2. Click on the Month, Day, Year of Date/Time filter, deselect Show Title
1.3. Click on the Hour of Date/Time legend for Sheet 1 (Map), deselect Show Title
1.4. Click on the Hour of Date/Time legend for Sheet 1 (Map), select Floating
1.5. Move the Hour of Date/Time legend on the right side of the map, resize the map to fit the legend
We want to add some descriptions to let users better understand the viz.
2.1. Title: Drag a text box to the dashboard, type
UBER RIDES IN NYCApril - May 2014
2.2. Instructions: Drag a text box to the dashboard, type Select the legends on the map or bars on the histogram to section data by time.
2.3. Descriptions: Drag a text box to the dashboard, type
TOTAL RIDES:SOURCE: FIVETHIRTYEIGHT
2.4. Total Rides
To display dynamic TOTAL RIDES text based on the date and time filter, we need to add a new sheet.
2.4.1. Drag Number of Records from Measures to Marks -> Text. A number should be displayed on the sheet.
2.4.2. Right-click the number, click Format... -> Font -> Worksheet -> White
2.4.3. Right-click the number, click Format... -> Shading -> Worksheet -> Black
2.4.4. Drag the new sheet to the dashboard
2.4.5. Click on the new sheet -> select Hide Title
2.4.6. Click on the new sheet -> select Floating. Drag the number right next to the TOTAL RIDES text.
2.5. Add Blank
Add blanks where is necessary to the dashboard, to let text vertically align with the center.
Now we’re done with the visualization.
New York Uber Rides