Here is the online How-to Videos page for Tableau Public. We recommend concentrating on the following videos first as these may best relate to this contest:

• 1. Tableau Public Overview

• 11. Creating Your First Chart

• 12. Using the Show Me Tool Bar

• 13. Understanding the Logic of Charts

• 14. Combining Sheets on a Dashboard

• 15. Adding Interactivity to Dashboards

• 16. Dashboard Formatting

• 21. Adding a custom visualization in Tooltip

And here is the online Free Training Videos page from Tableau Desktop. Tableau Desktop is technically a separate software, but most of its features that you may leverage for this contest work similarly in Tableau Public. These are the Tableau Desktop video sections that are recommended:

• Getting Started

• Visual Analytics

• Dashboards and Stories (but ignore the Stories videos)

• Mapping

The goal of this exercise is to use the provided data set to create and post an interactive dashboard to Tableau Public. In order to be considered for prizes, your visualization (an interactive dashboard) must meet the following minimum criteria:

• Use the provided data set

• Contain at least two separate but related charts

• Set the size of your dashboard as “Desktop Browser<1000x800>” and ensure it is visible to anyone using the link that you submit

• Give your data visualization a single main title (which captures the essence of the dashboard as a whole)

• Include a text box (small font is fine) on your dashboard, or add the following note to your metadata description box… “Data made available by the National UFO Reporting Center but downloaded from Tim Renner's data.world portfolio on 6/10/2020. It was further cleaned on 6/11/2020 by personnel from the Tenzer Technology Center at DePauw University."

• Include your name and expected DPU class year (in this case, all of you should be "2026") in the dashboard itself or in the metadata description box.

Your dashboard can focus on one state, a region of states, or select cities, or perhaps you aren't going to show geography at all, and instead, you may choose to look at the chronology of the reported sightings. Remember to make different visualizations than the examples shown above. You may notice that the Duration field isn't currently easy to work with, but with a little data work (e.g., using Excel) it could be cleaned up and analyzed. Be creative. There are lots of possibilities. Just be sure to use the provided data and meet the above minimum criteria.

Lastly, you may take inspiration from any number of sources, but plagiarism in any form will disqualify participants from this contest. We want to see your ideas and skills, not someone else's work!

Judging will focus on clarity, accuracy, creativity and aesthetics, but it will be very friendly and forgiving. Here are some recommendations:

• Prepare and present a concise and accurate story; focus.

• Ensure you have an accurate title and perhaps a short description.

• Think creatively and bring your own style; even seemingly small things like color choices and layout can have a big impact and will help separate your visualization.

Less material that is clearly presented with clean aesthetics is usually better than multiple clumsy charts that don’t coalesce.

We intend to have at least one grand prize, other top finishers, and several honorable mentions. Prize packs will be determined later and may feature technology equipment and/or DePauw swag, gear or clothing. Prizes may not be distributed until we’re back on campus in August.

Winners will be announced via email and on this page as soon as possible after the deadline and certainly by the end of July.

We will only judge one submission from each student. If you make 2 or more submissions, we'll simply use the most recent while ignoring the others.

Your visualization only needs to be visible to anyone with the direct URL (so that we can view and judge it). We won't share or post your visualization without your explicit consent. If you have any doubts or concerns about it being viewed more broadly or with random people finding it (i.e., what we typically refer to as public), just list it as “not visible" on your Tableau Public portfolio. This will ensure that only people with the direct URL can view it.

No. You are expected to use the provided data set as it is given. Use of any other dataset is subjected to disqualification from the contest.

Now that you have read this far down the page, here are some additional tips on creating a better visualization to win! Data visualization is used to create a narrative while also allowing the audience to view and draw insights and form their own story with the data.

Here is a very useful link to better understand the skill of creating a better visualization. Read through the material and try to implement it in your visualizations. Below listed are some other tips which can be of help.

• Accuracy and clarity are critical, but artistic expression and aesthetics are also important

• Less material that is clearly presented is often better than a bunch of seemingly random charts that don’t coalesce

• Focus on telling a story; do not try to impress us by demonstrating a bunch of Tableau Public features and functions

• Even seemingly small things like color choices and layout can have a big impact and will help separate your visualization

• Check your work carefully; ask yourself how each chart, title, color, font, data point, etc. is contributing to your visualization

If you have any other questions about the contest or Tableau, please feel free to contact Ayusha Bhattarai at ayushabhattarai_2025@depauw.edu. She is helping host and judge the contest.