Crafting Engaging Visualizations with Tree Maps

Unleashing the full potential of tree maps in handling large datasets requires a strategic approach. By implementing the right techniques and leveraging optimization methods, you can harness the power of tree maps to explore intricate hierarchies swiftly and effectively. In this blog, we will dive into the realm of handling large datasets in tree maps, offering practical tips and strategies to optimize performance and unlock the full potential of your data.

What is a tree map?

A tree map provides a way to display and compare hierarchical levels of data within a rectangular space. The size of each rectangle represents a quantitative value, such as the proportion or magnitude of a specific variable or attribute.

Tree Map Example in Bold BI

Benefits of using a tree map to visualize data

Using a tree map to visualize data offers several benefits. Here are some key advantages:

• Effective data representation: Tree maps use nested rectangles that represent hierarchical data, making it easier to understand the overall structure and patterns of the data.
• Hierarchical understanding: Tree maps represent hierarchical data through nested rectangles, allowing users to understand the composition and distribution of data across various categories.
• Space efficiency: Tree maps efficiently utilize space by packing rectangles, allowing for effective visualization of large datasets with numerous categories in a limited space.
• Comparative analysis: Tree maps’ comparison of data using rectangles, where sizes represent values or proportions, facilitates pattern recognition and identification of outliers.
• Visual storytelling: Tree maps use color gradients to visually represent data, enabling storytelling by highlighting trends, performance, and dimensions, thus making data-driven narratives more engaging.
• Decision-making support: Tree maps simplify complex data for informed decision-making, highlighting focus areas, resource prioritization, and revealing hidden opportunities or issues.

When to use a tree map

A tree map widget can be used in the following instances:

• When you need to simultaneously display the magnitude of categories and subcategories in one visualization.
• When you have a lot of hierarchical data and limited space.
• When you need to study data with respect to the quantitative values.
• If comparative analysis is required between elements or groups within the data, tree maps can aid in identifying variations or outliers.
• Where data has a hierarchical structure, tree maps can effectively display the relationships and proportions between different levels.

When not to use a tree map

Tree maps may not be suitable for visualization in the following instances:

• Where the data lacks a hierarchical structure or the relationships between data points are not hierarchical.
• If the data does not have a proportional distribution or proportional comparisons are irrelevant.
• A tree map cannot represent negative or zero values, as it uses the area of the rectangles to represent data values.
• A tree map is not well-suited for visualizing time-series data or trends over time.
• When too many categories are involved, which congests the tree map view.

How to configure a tree map in Bold BI

To configure a tree map widget in Bold BI, follow these steps:

1. Identify the data to be visualized.
2. Configure the measures in the x-axis and the y-axis.
3. Additionally, you can configure either a dimension or measure on a hidden column.
4. Apply formatting on the configured tree map to showcase the values.
5. Identify relevant color codes to visualize.
6. Finally, update the title and all the relevant basic settings under the properties tab.

It is critical to follow the step-by-step directions in the Bold BI documentation when creating a tree map.

What type of analysis does a tree map support?

A tree map is a visualization technique that displays hierarchical data using nested rectangles. It supports several types of analysis, including:

Hierarchical analysis: Tree maps are used to explore the hierarchical structure of data, with each rectangle representing a node and its relationships.

Size comparison: Comparing the size of rectangles in a tree map can help identify the relative magnitudes of different categories or subcategories.

Proportion analysis: Tree maps provide visual representations of proportions in hierarchical data.

Pattern identification: Tree maps can reveal patterns and clusters in data, providing insights into trends, correlations, and outliers.

Drill-down analysis: Tree maps provide interactive exploration and drill-down capabilities, allowing users to explore data at various levels of granularity and gain deeper insights.

Tree map real-time use cases

Here are some examples of successful tree map implementations in real-world applications:

Agile: incomplete tasks by project and priority

This tree map in Bold BI’s Sprint Management Dashboard shows incomplete tasks by project and priority. By showcasing an incomplete task within each project with its priority, a project manager can identify the proportion of each incomplete task and plan based on the priority. The advanced conditional formatting enables you to visualize the data based on conditions, in this case, the priority.

Incomplete Tasks by Project and Priority

Government: casualty by vehicle type

This tree map in Bold BI’s Motor Vehicle Analysis Dashboard visualizes accident casualties by vehicles. The use of a tree map enables government officials to assess which category of vehicle contributes to more casualties within their area of operations.

Casualty by Vehicle Type

Sales: accounts by industry

This tree map in Bold BI’s Sales Leads Tracking Dashboard showcases accounts owned by each industry. The distribution of number of accounts owned by each industry is shown by the use of a tree map that showcases data in a monochromatic way, allowing you to configure a single-color palette whose saturation will be varied based on value density.

Accounts by Industry

Retail: returned product by category

This tree map in Bold BI’s Retail Inventory Management Dashboard visualizes the units of products returned in each category. This provides managers with better comparative analysis of the products returned to make relevant decisions and improvements.

Returned Products by Category

Oil and Gas: well by status

This tree map in Bold BI’s Oil and Gas Wells Summary Dashboard visualizes the status of wells. The size of the rectangle and the color scale denote the number of wells in that status.

Well by Status

Sales: revenue by account

This tree map in Bold BI’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sales Manager Summary Dashboard showcases the total revenue generated by each account. The more colorful and larger the rectangle size, the more the revenue generated by the campaign.

Revenue by Account

I hope this blog has provided you with valuable insights and showcased that achieving optimal performance in tree map visualization with large datasets is an attainable goal with the right strategies and how Bold BI can assist you with it.

Originally published at https://www.boldbi.com on July 17, 2023.