A useful dashboard starts with a question worth answering. Google’s Analyzing and Visualizing Data in Looker introduces how to find relevant content, examine data and communicate results through Looker’s analysis and visualization workflow.
The course contains thirty-one videos, six quizzes and a resource document, alongside two required practical labs accessed separately. The free instruction progresses from the interface and basic analytical elements to dashboards, pivots, calculations and sharing. Its emphasis is the analyst or business-user experience rather than writing a LookML model.
Course at a glance
| Provider | |
|---|---|
| Platform | Google Skills |
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English |
| Estimated study time | 5 hours 45 minutes; provider full-course estimate including practical activities; instruction-only study time may differ. |
| Format | 31 videos, 6 quizzes, 1 reading/resource document; 2 separately accessed provider-required labs |
| Access | Advertised-free instruction; free learner account required. Labs, tools and product usage are separate. |
| Recognition | Provider recognition is subject to its activity requirements; no free badge or certificate promised. |
What you’ll learn
- Review Looker’s interface, folders and content organization.
- Use the instructional explanations of dimensions, measures and filters.
- Explore dashboards and boards for presenting and curating analysis.
- Understand pivots, table calculations and offset calculations.
- Review Looks, visualizations and sharing content with others.
Skills you’ll gain
- Analytical-question framing
- Dimension and measure interpretation
- Dashboard planning
- Calculated-metric vocabulary
- Result-sharing decisions
Move from a question to an analytical view
The initial videos introduce Looker, its interface and folders. The next sequence concentrates on dimensions and measures, including examples of combining and filtering them. This gives readers a useful foundation for understanding the choices behind an analytical view, rather than merely navigating a dashboard.
For independent study, use a fictional business question and identify the comparison it needs. Write down which grouping or measurement would help answer it and what should be filtered. The exercise helps connect a data question with the analytical view you need.
The course then develops the dashboard and board discussion. Those topics connect finding data with presenting or curating content for other people. They do not imply that a chart’s conclusion is reliable simply because it looks polished; the underlying question and interpretation still matter.
Explain the result before sharing it
Later lessons introduce pivots, table calculations and offsets, followed by visualizations, Looks and sharing. These sections expand the analysis workflow beyond an initial query. Each calculation or visualization should serve the question being investigated.
An independent review habit is to explain a result in plain language: what it measures, which period or group it describes and which filters affect it. That explanation helps a reader decide whether the result answers the original question. Keep that explanation beside the analytical view so another reader can understand its meaning.
The wider course includes two required labs covering analysis/visualization and table calculations/offsets. Practical access to those labs and to an organization’s Looker instance is separate from the free instruction. Use the instruction to understand the workflow before choosing practical access.
Free learning and practical access
Google advertises Free course instruction and requires a free Google Skills account. The two required labs and independent Looker product access are separate and may involve costs or organizational permissions. The five-hour-45-minute provider estimate describes the full course structure, rather than a measured free-video runtime.
Any provider badge depends on its required activities and access conditions. A free badge, professional certification or academic credit is not promised.
Explore more learning options in the free course catalogue.
Frequently asked questions
Is this different from Developing Data Models with LookML?
Yes. This course centers on end-user analysis, metrics, visualizations and dashboards. The LookML course concentrates on developer-side semantic modeling, Explores and derived tables.
Does the instruction cover calculations as well as charts?
Yes. The curriculum includes pivots, table calculations and offset calculations before moving to visualizations and sharing.
Do I receive access to my company’s Looker data?
No. The free instruction does not provide organizational data access. Product permissions and separately accessed practical labs must be arranged independently.
Questions & discussion
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