How to Create Sankey Diagram Using Free Sankey Chart Maker?

You’ll agree when we say visualizing data with flow-like attributes, such as cost breakdowns and material flow data, is tedious at best and time-consuming at worst.

Why?

This kind of data is complex. And it can easily overwhelm you, especially if you lack a solid data visualization strategy.

If you use a random chart to extract insights (from this data type), you’ll be just scratching the surface.

Yes, you read that right.

Well, there’s a chart called Sankey that handles this data type efficiently, thereby saving you time immensely. Besides, the chart is incredibly easy to read and interpret.

To access in-depth insights on a micro-level, you need Sankey Diagrams.

This blog will walk you through strategies and tips to adhere to when visualizing data with flow-like characteristics using Sankey visualization design.

You’ll also learn how to leverage a Sankey Chart generator fully to get the most out of your complex data.

Keep reading because you don’t want to miss the rest of the blog.

How to Create Insightful Visualizations using a Sankey Chart Maker?

Before we jump right to the how-to guide, let’s go through the definition part.

What is a Sankey Chart?

You can use Sankey Charts to visualize data with flow-like attributes, such as material, energy, cost, etc.

This chart draws the reader’s attention to the enormous flows, the largest consumer, the major losses, and other insights. Besides, Sankey uses links and nodes to uncover hidden insights into relationships between critical metrics.

The size of a node is directly proportionate to the quantity of the data point under review.

A flow that’s twice as wide represents double the value of the metric. You need a Sankey Chart generator to access this visualization for data storytelling.

So what’s the practical application of a Sankey Diagram?

You can use this phenomenal chart to visualize a broader range of data types in different industries, such as:

• Energy generation and transmission
• Marketing analysis (funnel analysis and optimization)
• Supply chain management
• Production systems (industrial processes)
• Cost breakdown in finance and accounting
• Tracking expenditure of Federal budget funds

The diagram below is a Sankey Chart. The nodes in this chart are categorized based on the key metrics (in our case: packages, delivery services, and countries).

As we said, you need a Sankey Chart maker to extract high-level insights from complex and bulky data.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

Benefits of Sankey Charts

You’ll agree when we say extracting insights from spreadsheets and tables is ‘so 20^th century’. Yes, it’s time-consuming and mentally exhausting.

You need intuitive tools to be fully data-driven. Yes, you read that right. You need tools that crunch massive data sets for you and produce charts that are easy to read.

In our case, you need a Sankey Chart maker to access Sankey.

Sankey visualization provides you with a 360-degree view of your data, irrespective of its complexity and volume. And it accomplishes (the above) by transforming complex, raw data into insights for your data stories.

Use this chart to identify the areas that need urgent improvement in your business, such as customer satisfaction.

Can you spot the need for a Sankey Chart generator in your data visualization strategy?

If your answer is NO, keep reading. We promise it will be worth your valuable time.

The Best Sankey Chart Maker

The Sankey Chart generator we recommend to our clients (and readers) is ChartExpo. Our recommendation is based on factors that MATTER to you, namely:

• Cost
• Friendliness of the user interface (UI)
• Quality of Sankey Diagrams generated
• Impact of the tool on your browser

Guess what? ChartExpo scores 100% in all the factors (mentioned above).

This highly intuitive Sankey Chart maker comes with a super-friendly UI. And this means you don’t need coding or programming skills to extract insights from your data.

This Sankey chart generator produces charts that are amazingly easy to interpret, even for non-technical audiences.

Did we mention ChartExpo is an add-on you can install in your Google Sheets? Well, now you know. You can install it from here

This cloud-hosted Sankey Chart maker is incredibly light for your browser. You have our guarantee your browser will be stable than ever when visualizing your complex data.

Remember, the cost of getting started with ChartExpo is absolutely FREE. Yes, you read that right.

So how can you visualize your data with Sankey Diagrams using ChartExpo?

Keep reading to find out more. You don’t want to skip this part.

How to create Sankey Chart with ChartExpo

We’ll use a data story example (below) to help you get started with this Sankey Chart maker (ChartExpo).

Example:

Imagine you own an export business that relies on delivery services to serve your customers across the world. You want to know the products that get delivered the most and the popular delivery service among customers.

Which chart would you go for to extract in-depth insights?

Yes, you guessed right. A Sankey Chart is suited for this scenario because there’s a flow of products. We’ll use our Sankey Chart maker in this example.

Let’s use the tabular data (below) for our scenario.

Packages	Delivery Services	Countries	Deliveries
Beverages	United Package	USA	3881
Beverages	United Package	Germany	2673
Beverages	United Package	Austria	2670
Beverages	United Package	Brazil	1424
Beverages	United Package	Ireland	1530
Beverages	Federal Shipping	USA	4266
Beverages	Federal Shipping	Germany	1684
Beverages	Federal Shipping	Austria	1546
Beverages	Federal Shipping	Brazil	1736
Beverages	Federal Shipping	Ireland	2930
Beverages	Speedy Express	USA	2997
Beverages	Speedy Express	Germany	1572
Beverages	Speedy Express	Austria	2255
Beverages	Speedy Express	Brazil	1223
Beverages	Speedy Express	Ireland	1757
Meat/Poultry	United Package	USA	2446
Meat/Poultry	United Package	Germany	1719
Meat/Poultry	United Package	Austria	2217
Meat/Poultry	United Package	Brazil	2633
Meat/Poultry	United Package	Ireland	1738
Meat/Poultry	Federal Shipping	USA	2733
Meat/Poultry	Federal Shipping	Germany	1669
Meat/Poultry	Federal Shipping	Austria	1855
Meat/Poultry	Federal Shipping	Brazil	1497
Meat/Poultry	Federal Shipping	Ireland	1638
Meat/Poultry	Speedy Express	USA	2675
Meat/Poultry	Speedy Express	Germany	2239
Meat/Poultry	Speedy Express	Austria	1801
Meat/Poultry	Speedy Express	Brazil	1749
Meat/Poultry	Speedy Express	Ireland	996
Dairy Products	United Package	USA	2314
Dairy Products	United Package	Germany	722
Dairy Products	United Package	Austria	1866
Dairy Products	United Package	Brazil	1947
Dairy Products	United Package	Ireland	1661
Dairy Products	Federal Shipping	USA	2835
Dairy Products	Federal Shipping	Germany	624
Dairy Products	Federal Shipping	Austria	1473
Dairy Products	Federal Shipping	Brazil	877
Dairy Products	Federal Shipping	Ireland	1535
Dairy Products	Speedy Express	USA	2409
Dairy Products	Speedy Express	Germany	1200
Dairy Products	Speedy Express	Austria	538
Dairy Products	Speedy Express	Brazil	640
Dairy Products	Speedy Express	Ireland	1671
Produce	United Package	USA	1912
Produce	United Package	Germany	774
Produce	United Package	Austria	549
Produce	United Package	Brazil	948
Produce	United Package	Ireland	796
Produce	Federal Shipping	USA	1715
Produce	Federal Shipping	Germany	741
Produce	Federal Shipping	Austria	569
Produce	Federal Shipping	Brazil	463
Produce	Federal Shipping	Ireland	862
Produce	Speedy Express	USA	1606
Produce	Speedy Express	Germany	744
Produce	Speedy Express	Austria	890
Produce	Speedy Express	Brazil	665
Produce	Speedy Express	Ireland	421
Confections	United Package	USA	1405
Confections	United Package	Germany	788
Confections	United Package	Austria	579
Confections	United Package	Brazil	579
Confections	United Package	Ireland	687
Confections	Federal Shipping	USA	1632
Confections	Federal Shipping	Germany	507
Confections	Federal Shipping	Austria	708
Confections	Federal Shipping	Brazil	729
Confections	Federal Shipping	Ireland	493
Confections	Speedy Express	USA	1652
Confections	Speedy Express	Germany	783
Confections	Speedy Express	Austria	403
Confections	Speedy Express	Brazil	538
Confections	Speedy Express	Ireland	592

• To get started with the Sankey Chart generator (ChartExpo), copy the table into your Google Sheets.

• Click the Add-ons button > ChartExpo > Open in your Excel.

• To access Sankey (in our Sankey Chart maker), click the Search box and type the chart’s name.
• In our case, we’ll type “Sankey” for the chart template to pop up.

• Select Sheet Name and click the Add New Metric button. (in our case, the metric is deliveries)
• Click the Add New Dimension button and fill in the values (in our scenario, the dimensional values to use are: Packages, Delivery Services, and Countries).
• Complete the simple process by clicking the Create Chart button.
• ChartExpo (Sankey Chart generator) provides you with a seamless experience due to its ease of use.
• If you follow the instructions (above), your final chart should look like this.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

How to Edit your Chart with our Sankey Chart Maker (ChartExpo)?

Changing Color of Nodes

• To change the color of your Sankey’s nodes, click the Edit Chart

• Then, click the pencil-like markers on the individual nodes you intend to change color, as shown.

• A drop-down called the Node Properties will appear. Click the Node properties section to
  select the Node Color box.

• Hover your mouse over the color you want and click the Choose button, as shown

• Complete the easy task by clicking the Apply button.
• NB: The same process applies to other nodes.

• Save the changes by clicking the Save button.

Adding Extra Information, such as Legend and Title

Assume your goal is to add bold in your chart title and increase its font size to 20.

• To get started, click the pencil-like markers at the placeholder of your chart title.

• After the Chart Header Top Properties drop-down pops ups, click the Text button.
• Add your chart title in the Line 1 box.
• Click the Apply button to finish the process.

• To change the font size of the chart’s title, click the Font style box to access more options, such as italics, bold, and font size.
• Click the box (with font size 8) and select font size 20.

• Click the Apply button. Complete the task by clicking the Save button, as shown.

• Your final chart should look like this one (below).

Insights

• Beverages and meat/poultry products are the best-moving products.
• Federal Shipping and United Package are the most used delivery services companies.
• The US has the biggest customer base for the brand offerings.

FAQs:

How do you make a Sankey Diagram In Google Docs?

You can create Sankey diagram in Google Sheets by using ChartExpo library which provides very step to create awesome visualization with the data you will provide to it.

How do you describe a Sankey Diagram?

Sankey Diagram is best suited for visualizing material flow, energy, cost breakdowns, etc.

This chart draws the reader’s attention to the most significant flows, the largest consumer, the major losses, and other insights. Sankey uses links and nodes to help you uncover hidden insights in data.

Wrap Up

You don’t have to struggle visualizing data with flow-like characteristics, such as energy and cost breakdowns.

Use the Sankey Diagram to visualize this type of data because it’s amazingly easy to read and interpret, especially in data stories.

If you’ve just landed here, this blog has tons of tips on how to get started with a Sankey Chart maker. (Refer back to the body of the blog if you want to take data storytelling skills a step further using a Sankey Chart)

If used effectively, Sankey is arguably one of the best visualizations to use in a data story.

With this chart, you can achieve the following:

• Quick trends and patterns analysis
• Uncover productivity and efficiency insights
• Create compelling reports and data stories

So what’s the best Sankey chart generator to use to visualize complex data?

We recommend to our readers to use the ChartExpo add-on to supercharge their favorite spreadsheet app.

Why?

ChartExpo produces Sankey Diagrams that are amazingly easy to read and interpret. Besides, with this tool, you don’t need coding or programming skills to get the most out of your data.

Sign Up with ChartExpo today to get started with Sankey Charts for your data stories.