How to represent data hierarchy with the Treemap chart in Looker Studio

The treemap chart in Looker Studio is a mosaic with colored blocks inside. These are ideal for visualising data hierarchies, easily revealing patterns in large datasets.

Personally, I love using this chart to visually represent hierarchy within a category.

In this post, we’ll continue using the Spotify dataset and use it to display the songs from our list that have the highest number of streams.

Remember, if you need to learn how to add a chart in Looker Studio or refresh your memory, you can do so by visiting the post on this topic.

In the set-up of your treemap chart, choose track_name as the dimension and streams as the metric.

This is the result, but the problem is that there are so many songs that the chart isn’t very clear.

Below the box where you choose the metric, you have the option to select the number of rows you want to display. Reduce it to 20.

Now it’s much clearer that the top two songs are “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd and “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran.

My recommendation is to use this chart with dimensions that don’t have as many categories as the one we used in this example.

Within the datasets discussed in this access to datasets post, there is one called ‘Superstore Products’. Why not try creating the following chart to show gross revenue by subcategory? Is this what you see?

Specific Customisation Options for the Chart

As you’ve seen in other charts, like the Looker Studio maps, this one allows you to drill down into the information. Continuing with the ‘Superstore Products’ example, select Category and Subcategory within Dimension and enable Drill down.

This will allow the final user of the report to change the dimension in the chart without needing editing privileges. Here, you see the chart with the Subcategory dimension (of the product).

And after clicking the down arrow at the top right of the chart, the dimension changes to Category (of the product).

In the Style tab, you can change the colours and choose those that represent the highest, middle, and lowest values of the metric. Here, select green, yellow, and red, respectively.

If you want to view two dimensions at the same time, the following chart allows you to see both the weight (size of the rectangles) of the subcategories and what categories they belong to.

In the configuration, I chose Subcategory as the first dimension and Category as the second.

What do you think of the treemap chart? If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment 🙂.

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