How I got started with Data Studio

Mirjam Schuke

Assuming Data Studio is set up and your user account has been created, “Your space” is your personal work area. Any changes you make in this Space will not impact any other users.

To understand some Aperture Data Studio specific terms (highlighted in bold below) the documentation site is a useful resource. Other resources for you to interact with are the in-app tutorials and e-Learning videos.

Find some data

To get started you will need some data. The easiest way is to manually upload a csv file as a Dataset (later you can automate this or connect to a database/CRM directly). If you do not have data then you can download something like sports career stats, Titanic passenger lists, crime stats from either wikipedia.org, data.world, kaggle.com etc. at no cost. Make it fun by using something you’re interested in as your testing data.

If you are looking for names and addresses, there is a sample file available to download in the top-right help menu:

Now that you have uploaded your data think about the tasks or goals you want to achieve, such as to build a Dashboard.

Set a task

I personally found that having something specific to achieve with my data made learning the tool much easier and clearer than just clicking on buttons to see what they did. Using some crime data, I decided to summarize the key statistics, like what areas have most crime, who are the victims, what time of year do the crimes happen in a Dashboard:

Start building

To build the dashboard I needed to manipulate my data to be able to create Views and Charts that could be used on the Dashboard.

I first added a Dataset, then explored it, Filtered, Grouped, and Transformed and saved as a number of different Views and Charts to be added to the Dashboard. Complex filtering and transformations will require and introduce you to Functions (once you become more familiar with these, check out the Functions Library.)

Ideally the task will incorporate many of the most common objects and actions:

To include a description or summary in your dashboard add the Custom content widget. Using markdown language you can style the title, highlight pieces of information or even add emoji. The charts (called Widgets in Dashboard edit mode) can also be moved and resized, and you have various styling options to organise your Dashboard.

Share a screengrab of your first Chart, Workflow, Function or Dashboard below with a brief description of what you set out to achieve.