Bypassing Defaults in Data Visualization Design Processes: A Tableau Case Study

Starting from a case study of going beyond data visualisation software tool Tableau’s default features and developing a visualisation creative hack, this chapter looks at the communities of practice that have facilitated this process. It interrogates the roles undertaken by the developers of the hack, and it traces their key moments, interactions, and sources of inspiration. Then, by bringing into discussion similar acts as conducted with other software tools, it also brings into discussion echoes of a “beyond-the-defaults” narrative in data visualisation. In its engagement with data visualisation as cultural production, it aims to provide an account of collective creative endeavours in the field and it advocates their relevance.