Today was the first day of the Data School’s notorious Dashboard Week. It was quite an adventure. Our challenge was to use data from the SpaceX API to tell a story, using Alteryx to clean and transform the data and Tableau to visualise it.
I decided to focus solely on SpaceX launches and wanted to see what factors contributed to the success or failure of a launch.
As I was going through the data, I realised that I needed to get more information about the rockets and launch pads. So, I went back to the API and joined more tables.
I encountered some issues with joining tables and filtering data, but with some help from trainer Ross and other keen data schoolers, I was able to work through these challenges. I used some of the favourite bar tools to clean up the JSON data and created a record ID to group the data in a crosstab tool. I also used dates and sorted them to see if there were any patterns in successful launches.
As the day progressed, I was able to build a dashboard with a chart, a KPI, and some basic information. However, I wanted to make it more informative, so I decided to incorporate donut charts to show the cost per launch per rocket, count of launch attempts, and number of failed launches.
It was a challenging but productive day. Dashboard Week is a good chance to practice scoping, timeboxing and reaching back into the past to remember what we did in earlier weeks!
