Overview

Treemaps are used to show the composition of a whole and its hierarchical structure. Each branch of the tree is given a rectangle, which is then tiled with smaller rectangles representing sub-branches. The area of each rectangle is proportional to a specified dimension of the data (e.g., market cap, file size).

Benefits

  • Efficient use of space for large hierarchies.
  • Easy to spot the largest components and outliers.
  • Can use color to represent a second dimension (e.g., percentage change).

Use Cases

  • Visualizing stock market performance by sector.
  • Analyzing disk space usage.

Related Terms