Triangle/Ternary Plot in Tableau
Triangle/Ternary plots are a good way of displaying the relative positioning of points across three variables. This can be used to cluster and classify points based on these three variables. After the break I have outlined a way of creating an interactive version of a triangle/ternary plot in Tableau.
Here is an example of a triangle/ternary plot on the performance of collegiate players at the 2017 NFL combine across three variables: size (BMI), speed (40 time) and strength (bench press).
Thanks again Mike Cisneros for the help. Here are more detailed steps on how to create in Tableau: http://duelingdata.blogspot.com/2017/04/nfl-combine-triangleternary-plot.html
Conveniently I used to work for a company that had three product lines that could cannibalize each other. Other than that specific use case for that company, I haven't quite seen the need for this chart.
This ternary plot has a few issues. what if one player was an extremity on 2 metrics (or three for that matter). this would be difficult to represent in the graph. if a player happened to be the biggest, fastest and strongest would it be a dot in the center of the triangle? better to represent on a plot axis where: x axis = 1 dimension, say speed y axis = 2nd dimension, say strength size of circle = size color = position (as is the case) this way if a player were very strong and very fast, that would be obvious right away, they would be in the top right quadrant. you could add a 5th dimension using intensity of color to represent maybe the players projected draft pick. I'm not sold in this triangle graph. not to mention the amount of prep work.
Thanks for sharing .
Thanks for sharing. Good to see a use case for R.
This is really great viz ever think. Thanks so much to bring this concept.