Creating a bubble chart

To follow this recipe, open B05527_01 – STARTER.twbx. Use the worksheet called Bubble, and connect to the Data (Modified Gapminder Population) data source.

The following are the steps to create a bubble chart:

A bubble chart typically shows information in circles of varying colors and sizes. Creating a bubble chart in Tableau requires changing the mark type to Circle. A measure is typically placed in Size, as well as another dimension in either Color, Label, or Detail (or any combination thereof).

In this recipe, we placed the Population measure onto Size, created different bubbles for every country by placing Country in Label, and color the circles by Region.

If the pie chart gets a bad reputation, bubbles charts do too (maybe more). If we humans cannot compare angles with ease, we are also generally not very good at comparing diameter and circumference. Is that circle 15% bigger than the previous circle?

Most would argue that bar charts would be more effective than bubble charts, and I mostly agree. However, as with the pie chart, I think bubble charts can be effective—depending on the intent and audience.

In my courses, I ask students to present their work to the rest of the class. The goals of the presentation are to present their findings, as well as to engage the audience. One of the charts that frequently captures the attention of the audience is the bubble chart. Sometimes this chart also garners the most questions—therefore more engagement.

I would also argue that typically a single chart is not a be-all and end-all—typically we complement this with other charts, dashboards, and storytelling. There is nothing that stops us from starting our story with a bubble chart to get the audience's initial attention, and once we have their attention, proceed to more details using dependable bar and line charts.

The storytelling piece is also key. We have to be effective storytellers—our charts are simply our props. With effective storytelling, any chart can be effective and exciting.