Sankey charts are a powerful data visualization technique that can help you to more clearly and effectively present complex relationships. Instead of lines connecting points, they use a series of “pipes” to represent dependencies and pathways between different sets of data. This makes it easy to understand the direction and flow of information or data, making it useful for everything from finance to economics and beyond.
To get started, it’s important to know how to choose the right type of data for a Sankey chart. For example, if you have income data, you can represent it flow-wise. If you have expenses or savings data, you can represent it circle-wise instead. For financial transactions, a stacked bar chart might be more appropriate, but a Sankey chart can effectively communicate the relationships between these variables.
Once you have your data and know how to format your data with the proper type of chart, it’s easy to create a high-quality Sankey chart using chart makers like Adobe Illustrator, Tableau, or Power BI. Start by laying out your data on a diagram, and then create the pipes. Make sure to label each pipe clearly and use the width and height of the pipes to represent the magnitude or significance of each relationship.
Sankey charts are great for a number of applications. They can help to show how information flows between different entities, be it in an economy or finance, the natural environment, or even society, if those relationships are complex or difficult to explain. For instance, Sankey charts can help you to understand the impact of trade flows or how a company’s resources are shared across various departments.
Additionally, Sankey charts can help you to track investments or capital flows within ecosystems, showing the direction of energy flows, and how different sectors or regions interact with one another. They can be particularly useful for showing processes and dependencies between data that are difficult to analyze or understand, such as the way in which water or chemicals flow through systems.
To really get the full picture, use multiple different Sankey charts to show how different factors contribute to the final output or to show the flow of data between different regions. This can help to show the way in which different factors come together to create overall outcomes, and can be quite eye-opening.
Sankey charts are a fantastic tool for displaying and exploring relationships in data in a simple, intuitive way, making it a great way to communicate complex and nuanced data. If you want to improve the way your data is understood, consider exploring the applications of Sankey charts in your analysis.
In conclusion, Sankey charts are an excellent way to communicate relationships between complex data in a clear, concise and intuitive way that makes complex data easier to understand. With simple formatting and design, this type of chart can make sense even to those without a financial background to break down complex topics in a way that helps to clarify their relationship and direction. This is a great way to improve the way you present your data and it can be incredibly useful in improving the way you understand data.
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.
