Dataskera

Quadrant Matrix

Two measures, a line through each, and four corners that mean something: the portfolio review, the risk register, the RFM segmentation, the vendor landscape. Tableau draws the scatter natively and then leaves the author to build the rest by hand every time, with reference lines that do not move when the filters do and quadrant names living in a floating text box.

Data Requirements

Your Tableau worksheet should include:

  • 1 Dimension for the Item encoding. One point per value: the thing being placed.
  • 1 Measure for the X Axis encoding. What runs left to right.
  • 1 Measure for the Y Axis encoding. What runs bottom to top.
  • 1 Measure for the Size encoding. Optional: a positive measure carried by the area of each dot.

Add Quadrant Matrix to your worksheet

First, download the manifest file. It tells Tableau where to load the extension from.

Download quadrantmatrix.trex

Direct link: https://dataskera.com/downloads/quadrantmatrix.trex

Then, in Tableau:

  1. On the Marks card, open the Mark type dropdown, and under Viz Extensions choose Add Extension.
  2. In the Add an Extension dialog, choose Access Local Viz Extensions, then open the quadrantmatrix.trex file you just downloaded.
  3. When Tableau asks, allow the extension to access the data in the workbook.
  4. The welcome screen appears. Sign in with your Dataskera account, or on Tableau Desktop choose Use on Desktop without an account. See Signing in & access below.
  5. Build the chart: drag a dimension onto Item and a measure onto each axis. Add a third measure to Size to weight the points.
Tableau Server or Cloud:
A site admin must allow the extension by adding its URL to the site's safe list, and the view needs the Download Summary Data permission. Extension URL: https://vizextension.dataskera.com/quadrantmatrix/quadrantmatrix.html

Signing in & access

Quadrant Matrix is free. Whether you need to sign in depends only on what you are doing. Viewing a dashboard never asks for an account, and authoring is free too.

Viewing a dashboard
No account

People who only view a dashboard are never asked to sign in and are never blocked.

Editing on Tableau Desktop
Optional

Sign in, or continue without an account in a single click.

Editing on Server or Cloud
Free account

Sign in with your Dataskera account to author on the web.

No account yet? Create one free in under a minute. No credit card required.

Format panel

Open the Format panel from the extension menu to customize the chart. It is for the dashboard author and is not shown to viewers. It has four tabs:

  • Where the Lines Sit: the median, the average, the middle of each axis, zero, or values you type.
  • The Four Corners: a name for each quadrant, whether the counts are printed, and the tint.
  • Points: dot size, the largest dot when a Size measure is mapped, and the axes.
  • Labels: every name that fits, every name regardless, only the ones furthest from the centre, or none.
  • Color: a palette, a precise colour per category, and the overall opacity.
  • Legend: show or hide it, its position around the chart, an optional show/hide toggle for viewers, the colour swatch, and the content of each entry.
  • Tooltip: show or hide it, its colours, decimals, and a template you write yourself from the placeholders the chart provides.
The lines follow the data:
A threshold typed once and left behind is how this chart usually goes wrong: the filters move, the data moves, and the line stays where it was. The default is the median of what is on screen, recomputed every time. Whichever rule drew them, the chart prints where its lines came from and whether they move.
Pin them when they are a policy:
Type fixed values when the threshold is a decision rather than a reading, and the chart says the lines stay put when the filters move. A typed value that is not a number falls back to the median and says so.
Area carries the size, not radius:
Twice the measure is twice the ink rather than four times it, which is the difference between a chart that can be read and one that exaggerates its biggest items.
Names are never drawn over each other:
Labels claim their box, and every dot claims its circle, so a name is never printed across another name or across a neighbouring point. What was left off is counted, and every point still carries its name in the tooltip.
A point needs both measures:
An item missing either one has no place on a plane, so it is left out and counted rather than drawn at zero, which would put it in a corner it does not belong to. A negative size cannot be an area, so every dot falls back to one size and the chart says why.