#SWDchallenge: tree-mendous treemaps!

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Picture of a tree and a map together to form a treemap!
 

Every so often, for the #SWDchallenge, we ask you to create a specific type of visual. In some cases these are very common (like August 2020’s “make a perfect pie”), and in others, the request is to produce a graph that’s a little more novel (as with “exploring unit charts” in July 2021). This month, we sit somewhere in the middle of that scale, as we turn our attention to the treemap. 

While treemaps aren’t seen frequently within the world of data visualisation, they do appear among the standard set of chart types in many tools; Excel, Power BI, Tableau, and Flourish (among others) include the ability to create a treemap “out of the box”.

Treemaps are built with a series of nested rectangles, sized proportionally to their corresponding data values, to deliver an organised and multi-level view into any hierarchical data set. They can be a suitable chart choice if:

  • You want to visualise a part-to-whole relationship among a large number of categories

  • Precise comparisons between categories are not important

  • You need to prioritise the efficient use of space

  • Your data is hierarchical

Having had the opportunity to research treemaps in more detail whilst writing the latest addition to the SWD chart guide, I was pleasantly surprised by how simple they were to create (leveraging Excel in this instance), and how quickly I was able to explore and uncover a number of insights. I’m now curious to see what you, in the community, can discover.

The challenge

Find some data of interest that will lend itself well to being represented as a treemap, and create that visual using your tool of choice. In addition, I challenge you to identify at least two interesting takeaways and enter them either as additional commentary or ideally annotated within your final design. Finally, I’d be interested to know whether you felt the treemap was a good medium for your chosen information or whether an alternative graph choice would have served more effective. 

If you need help finding a data source, check out this list of publicly available data for inspiration. Real-world work examples could also work as long as you anonymize appropriately.  When providing your submission let us know what interesting insights you were able to obtain from the treemap. 

Share your tree-mendous treemap in the SWD Community by Monday, October 31st at 5PM ET. If there is any specific feedback or input that you would find helpful, include that detail in your commentary. Take some time to browse others’ submissions, too, and share your input via comments and data points over the course of the month.

Related Resources

A few suggestions for understanding treemaps and practical tips on creating them are mentioned below. If you are aware of other good ones, please share them in your submission commentary.