When it comes to finding inspiration for my visualisations, it rarely comes from a single source. Ideas are everywhere, and with a bit of curiosity, you too can build a mile-long list of projects to either churn through, or chip away at over time.
This post is the first in a planned series that takes you through the end-to-end development of one of my Tableau Public visualisations, a Formula 1 “Bar Chart” Race. I will be presenting this viz at the Sports Tableau User Group (TUG) in September 2025, and I wanted to share the full journey – from the first spark of inspiration to the final product.
Curiosity
Before diving into the specifics of this project, I want to talk about how I come up with ideas in general. This topic of idea generation had been on my mind ever since I was booked to speak at the Sports TUG but also came up recently during Louis Yu’s Datafam TUG session, so it feels especially timely!
For me (and as Louis also mentioned in his response), almost all of my non-community challenge visualisation ideas stem from curiosity. This is something that has grown over time as I’ve published more work on Tableau Public. Whenever I see or hear something that connects to data, even loosely, I find myself subconsciously wondering, could this be an interesting analysis or story to tell? Could I build this in Tableau?
That spark of curiosity is what drives most of my personal projects. I especially love trying to stretch the boundaries of what Tableau can do, and after more than 11 years using the tool, I’m still learning new techniques and discovering creative ideas. Often, the skills I develop through these projects end up being extremely useful in a professional setting too.
A quick example of curiosity leading to creation is my Formula 1 starting grid map layers visualisation. It was inspired by graphics shown during F1 TV coverage. I had been seeing more and more map layer visualisations from the Tableau community and wanted to experiment here.
Finding opportunity to be curious
So, you now know that you need to be curious – but how do you find opportunity to be curious? Below are a number of different ways that have helped me come up with ideas that are now published to Tableau Public or sitting patiently in my ever-growing backlog!
- Tap into the community
- Search the #DataFam hashtag on your favourite social media platforms regularly. The Tableau community is very active, and seeing what others are building or talking about can spark ideas or help you spot trends
- Surround yourself with inspiration
- Connect with creators who consistently put out great work. You’ll find them on LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, at TUGs, and of course, on Tableau Public. Sometimes, just seeing someone else’s visualisation can inspire you to iterate on their idea, or take it in a completely new direction
- Explore Tableau Public
- Keep an eye on trending visualisations and follow authors whose work you admire. Try recreating their visualisations to learn new techniques. If you get stuck, download their workbook (if enabled), and reverse-engineer it
- Look beyond Tableau
- Follow visualisation groups and media outlets that share work built in other tools like D3, Flourish or R, then challenge yourself to recreate those designs in Tableau. My second case study below involves just that!
- Let life take over
- Listen to podcasts, walk the dog, or just look around. A podcast I was listening to recently had a segment on movies which sparked an idea for a new analysis, and I find that walking the dog is prime thinking time!
- Lean on community projects
- If you’re still stuck, turn to community challenges like Makeover Monday or Workout Wednesday. These are great prompts to get your creativity flowing
Case Study – F1 Bar Chart Race
My F1 Bar Chart Race visualisation came to be thanks to connecting and networking within the Tableau Community, while the implementation and build itself was inspired by a couple of things I had come across previously. Completing the build was largely driven by curiosity over whether visualising an entire Formula 1 race would be possible within Tableau.
- The initial idea to work through this visualisation first came from discussion amongst a few Datafam members in a Whatsapp chat that we have going. After stewing on the idea for some time, I finally progressed to the point of working through the build following some back-and-forth discussion with Chris McClellan in the days that followed and some early prototyping in Tableau with test data from him
- The implementation within Tableau was inspired by the ability to build bar chart race animations such as this from Blackraven on Tableau Public
- The style of visualisation was inspired by F1 Grand Prix full race visualisations by F1Visualized on YouTube
Case Study – Combined Line & Slope Chart
One afternoon I was scrolling through X/Twitter, and saw that Tableau Ambassador, Kevin Wee, had shared a line and slope combination chart from a WSJ article about flexible work arrangements.
I hadn’t seen these chart types combined before, and really like the impact of the visual, and with a free evening ahead of me, I decided to have a go at implementing it within Tableau. The driving force behind this was the ability to make it interactive, so that the user could select their time period by interacting with the visualisation directly through click and hover actions (not drop downs and date selectors!), and have the relative variance update automatically.
After I published the visualisation, it took on a life of its own, thanks largely to amplification from the community. This was my first project that really blew-up and received recognition, and while this article is focused on how to generate ideas, this particular visualisation
- Received over 15,000 impressions on Twitter, 20+ reposts and 120+ likes
- Has 5,000 views on Tableau Public with 88 favourites
- Was recognised and incorporated as a Workout Wednesday exercise (complete it yourself!)
- Has been featured by “Professional Chart Looker-atter”, Steve Wexler, who wrote about the chart and what it achieves, and highlighted it at Tableau Conference 2025 in his Chart Chat session (watch their follow-up session on YouTube here)
Conclusion: Stay Curious, Stay Creating
Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience in visualisation, the spark for your next project is often closer than you think. Curiosity isn’t just a trait, it’s a practice. By staying connected to the community, exploring new ideas, and being open to inspiration from everyday life, you’ll find that ideas begin to flow more freely.
This post is just the beginning of a deeper dive into one of my favourite personal projects. I hope that it’s helped you see how curiosity can be cultivated and turned into something tangible. Stay tuned!
And if you made it this far – here’s a picture of my good-boy, who accompanies me on those thinking walks 🙂
