Tableau Software’s 8.2 update includes a variety of  improvements — Tableau can now run natively on Macs, for example — but the new Story Points feature stands out. Story Points allows Tableau customers to accompany visualizations of their data with a unique, data-driven narrative that helps all viewers interpret, understand, and act on their data.

Story Points allow users to build data-driven stories that remain connected to the data from which they were generated. Because Story Points maintains this connection, it means the narratives are responsive to changes in the data, views, and dashboards. Along with Tableau visualizations, Story Points can be published to Tableau online, Tableau Server, and Tableau public so they can be shared across businesses and with clients.

Other Tableau 8.2 updates are in line with Tableau’s established mission, which, as Tableau CEO Christian Chabot stated, is to “[usher] business analytics out of the dark ages and into its golden era of fast, easy, self-service analytics for everyone.”

Tableau 8.2 brings Mac up to speed with Windows when it comes to Tableau visualizations. 8.2 also improves the visual data window, the maps, and the enterprise-class Tableau server by making them more simple and engaging.

Data visualization has been a key part of the conversation around Big Data in recent years. As VP of Tableau Software Dan Jewett explained in his interview with John Furrier and Dave Vellante, “having the data is one thing, but if you don’t have access to it, if you can’t understand it, if you can’t put that human touch on it, the human understudying of it, you’ve got a gap there.”

Tableau made a name for itself as an intermediary between vast caches of data and the human side of the business, using data visualization to give business the ability to interpret that data and extract valuable insights using fast, intuitive tools.

With Story Points, Tableau pushes the envelop on the interpretation of Big Data. SiliconANGLE Senior Managing Editor Kristen Nicole commented that previous iterations of Tableau have “empowered companies to operate with the confidence of clarity and self-awareness.” The Story Points feature institutes a new type of awareness powered by interactive, data-driven stories. Older than the written word, storytelling has the ability to help clients draw connections and understand the flow of actions and insights.

Although, as SiliconANGLE blogger Mike Wheatley says, Tableau already offered “sophisticated visual representations of big data that even your grandmother could understand,” Story Points underscores Tableau’s commitment to ensuring big data insights are comprehensible and actionable, so companies can make business decisions confidently and quickly.

image courtesy Tableau