BAR MEKKO PLOT

The bar mekko plot is a variable width bar chart. A bar mekko chart is an alternative to a bar chart, for instance to show product profitability, with gross margin as the bar height and sales as the bar width.

PLOT DETAIL

The plot is run twice,...

barmekko

...once for each period.

barmekko (1)

SAVING THE PLOT

To save the plot as a PNG file, click on the small camera icon on the top right corner of the plot.

OTHER OPTIONS

Open the expander under the 📊 Plot type drop down menu by clicking on the ➕ sign.

Additional options are available for selection.

You can choose the dimension you want to plot, and which metrics to plot on the X and on the Y axes.

You can choose on which axis metric to sort the chart.

For instance, you could plot average price on the X axis and Units on the Y axis: the area of the polygons will be proportional to the Amount in value.

Alternatively, you could plot Average Margin in % on the X axis and Amount on the Y axis: the area of the polygons will be proportional to the Gross Margin in $.

By default, the chart is sorted by bar length.

It is also possible to sort the chart by bar height.

By default, the seven top items in terms of chosen metric are plotted on each axis, while the other items are aggregated together.

You can change the number of top items to plot.

NEGATIVE VALUES

Negative values on the Y axis will be plotted as shown in the example below.

Since negative values on the vertical axis cannot be plotted in a mekko plot, the negative values will be dropped and an error message will be shown.

EDIT AND MOVE LABELS

You can edit and move around plot titles and labels. In this chart..

...you can move the value labels around and adjust their position.

ANNOTATE CHARTS

It is possible to annotate charts with lines, rectangles and circles. It is possible to modify the shapes and move them around, and delete them.

Hover and click on the "draw line", "draw circle" and "draw rectangle" icons on the menu bar on the upper right of the chart.

Draw and edit your shapes.

ADD PLOT MESSAGE

It is possible to add messages to the chart, in the style suggested by the IBCS standard.

Add your message in the text box, one chart at a time.

Once you have finished writing the message for a chart, click on the 🚀 Submit.

Your message will appear above the chart title

Now write another message on the text box of a different chart.

Click submit. Your second message appears above the second chart.

The downloaded image of the chart contains the message.

CHART TITLE

The chart title is set on three lines: the first line contains the reporting unit ("who"), the second line the business metric ("what") and the third line the time period ("when").

You can adjust the position of the title, the message text and the horizontal line by moving them around with the mouse.

barmekko (1)

CHOICE OF COLOR PALETTE

You can choose one of the nine available color palettes. Six are inspired by Mekko Graphics, the other are default Tableau and PowerBi palettes, and a palette inspired from the IBCS examples.