Overview # An area plot shows how some particular value changes as another value changes. A simple area plot is made up of a line that moves right along the horizontal axis, and its vertical position moves up and down to match some value. The area under the line is filled in with shading or color. The line itself can be removed once the area is filled. Functionally, an area plot is very similar to a line plot. ...
Overview # Hexagonal binning (hexbins in short) is a way to communicate density of data with two numerical fields by using position and color gradients rather than just raw points. Hexbin plots are a type of two-dimensional density plot. Alternative two-dimensional density plots include: Square density plots Contour plots Kernel density plots Extension of histograms # A lot of the thinking used to put together histograms applies here. ...
Overview # A proportional stacked area plot is used to show the proportion of a whole that different groups represent along different phases. The whole measures out to 100% (or numerically, 1.0). When to use # A proportional stacked area plot is ideal for showing proportions. By itself, it’s not great if what you want to do is communicate actual counts or values. Data # Similar to a stacked area plot, a proportional area plot starts with at least three fields of data: ...
Overview # A stacked area plot is used to visualize how the values of a group of things change as another value changes. The different groups are – as the name suggests – stacked on top of one another. The total height represents the sum of the different groups at different stages. This is an extension of the simple area plot, which you can think of as a stacked area plot, but with just one group. ...
Overview # An alluvial plot is a way to show proportions of observations across different categories. Visually, an alluvial plot is made up of stacked bars, and between those bars are links. Each set of stacked bars represents a categorical field. The separations within the stacked bars represent different categories. These stacked bars are more precisely referred to as strata (singular, stratum), and the vertical stacked bar themselves are called axis. ...
Overview # A sankey diagram is a visualization that can be used to represents flows that move through stages. A sankey diagram requies three different types of information: * Nodes – these are the stages along a flow. * Links – these are the connections between different nodes, and shows where the flow goes. Links are also scaled by some value to communicate the scale of flows. ...
Overview # A chord diagram is a way to graphically show relationships between things in a circular form, with links (also referred to as arcs or bands) within the circle connecting the different things. The links can be mapped to some value. The scale of the value can be represented by width, color, shape, or some combination of features. The scale of the links is most commonly represented by width, and the directionality of the links is often represented by color. ...
Overview # A circle pack is used to show proportions using circles of different sizes. The relative positions of the circles don’t mean anything. Circle packs can be hierarchical, in the sense that categories can be nested within other categories. Functionally, circle packs are very similar to treemaps. In fact, circle packs are sometimes referred to as “circular treemaps”. When to use # Use circle-packs when you want to convey a sense of how different categories compare in terms of scale. ...
Overview # A slopegraph is a way to display change for particular observations across very few periods or categories. A very common use case for a slopegraph is to show how a set of observations change from one period to the next, and no more. Visually, a slopegraph looks like a line plot, with the ends connecting a starting point and an endining point. The slope of the lines communicates the degree and the direction of change for a given observation. ...
Overview # A treemap is a way to show hierarchical data, where the shapes correspond to relative proportions. Hierarchical data means there are layers to the stuff being examined, where specific things fit into broader buckets. There might be a major category, and within those categories, there might be minor categories. In fact, there might be multiple layers of categorization. Let’s say we’re talking about a kitchen pantry, and we want a count of the different types of items we have in the pantry. ...