MARIMEKKO

The mekko plot is used to visualise categorical data over a pair of variables and still seeing the absolute numbers of the elements as a kind of weighting. It is inspired by the marimekko IBCS template.

PLOT DETAIL

The plot is run twice,...

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...once for each period.

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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 dimensions you want to plot on the vertical and horizontal axes, and which metric to plot.

The top items in terms of total value are plotted the vertical axis, while the other items are aggregated together. The items summed together are plotted in light grey color.

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You can change the number of top items to plot for each axes.

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You can choose to have the value labels plotted in their absolute value....

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...as percent of the grand total...

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...as % of the row total of each item.

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or as % of the total of each vertical category.

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NEGATIVE VALUES

Negative values on the Y axis will be plotted as shown in the example below. Label position might need manual adjusting.

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Since negative values on the X 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 oand 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. You might need to adjust the position of your labels.

The downloaded image of the chart contains the message.

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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.

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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.