Simplifying complex narratives: The art of Sankey charts in visual storytelling

In an age where information is at our fingertips, the challenge often lies not in finding data, but effectively communicating its meaning. This is where Sankey charts step into the spotlight, presenting a powerful yet underutilized tool for simplifying complex narratives through visual storytelling. Named after their inventor, Arthur B. Sankey (known as the “Sankey diagrams” in the UK), these charts are not just data representation; they are a form of narrative art.

What are Sankey charts?

Essentially, Sankey charts use varying widths of bars to represent the distribution of a given quantity along a series of connected arrows, typically representing processes or flows. In their simplest form, they show a flow within a system, illustrating where the flow is coming from and where it is going. They can become far more complex, encompassing multiple tiers of data, but at the heart, they remain a visual tool for tracing connections and flows among different entities.

Creating a Sankey chart:

Creating a Sankey chart involves a few simple steps, which are often facilitated by software designed for these charts, such as Sankey Diagrams Software (SDS), NetLingo, or custom coding tools like Google Charts. Here’s a general guide:

1. Define the Purpose: Understand the data and the narrative you want to tell. What is the end goal of sharing this information?

2. Generate the Data: Collect and organize the relevant data. This could be resource allocation, energy consumption, business processes, or any form of flow requiring detailed mapping.

3. Choose Your Tool: Select a charting tool that best fits your needs, whether it be a digital software package or a hand-drawn layout.

4. Design Your Chart: Create the structure of your chart, adding flow lines and nodes. Each node represents a category or element, while the width of each flow line represents the quantity of the resource or data.

5. Refine and Decorate: Make necessary adjustments to the flow and sizing accordingly. Enhance storytelling by adding labels, color coding, or even including a legend for complex charts.

6. Review and Share: Test the chart, ensuring it conveys your intended message. Share the result, allowing your readers to quickly grasp the relationships and flows within the data set.

Applications in the real world:

Sankey charts are versatile, adapting to various fields and applications:

• Business: They can depict organizational workflows, showing how time, finances, or effort get distributed among different activities or departments.

• Environmental Science: Ecosystem flows, energy consumption, and resource allocation can be graphically represented, contributing to global sustainability discussions.

• Healthcare: Sankey charts can help visualize patient care flows within a hospital or clinic, aiding in resource optimization and quality improvement initiatives.

• Education: They are an engaging tool for explaining complex learning processes, resource allocation among teaching activities, and student behavior patterns.

• Media and Culture: By showing audience engagement statistics or digital content distribution, Sankey charts can help in storytelling for media outlets and cultural analysis.

Conclusion

While the digital age has provided numerous tools and methods for data communication, the art of Sankey charts endures as a powerful, yet underutilized asset in the field of data visualization. The charm of Sankey charts lies in their simplicity, allowing complex narratives to be unraveled with a few well-placed lines and nodes. By breaking down intricate data sets and relationships into visually digestible storytelling elements, Sankey charts reaffirm the value of effective communication in our data-driven world. So next time you stand in awe of a well-constructed map or flowchart, consider the silent yet profound narrative it tells – that of the art of Sankey charts in visual storytelling.

SankeyMaster

SankeyMaster is your go-to tool for creating complex Sankey charts . Easily enter data and create Sankey charts that accurately reveal intricate data relationships.