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Quick answers
When should I pick Sankey flow stories?
When the story is: budget allocation, conversion paths, material or energy flows.
When should I avoid Sankey flow stories?
Skip it in cases like: the audience only needs a start-vs-end waterfall.
Who invented or popularised it?
Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey (1898); modern d3-sankey layouts
What does it encode?
link width proportional to flow between nodes
Is it OK in ads?
Yes if one claim is visible at a glance in Meta, Google and retail print; otherwise link to a full figure.
Will a teacher accept it?
Yes for lab reports and poster boards if axes, units and a source line are present.
Sankey flow stories encodes values as link width proportional to flow between nodes. Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey (1898); modern d3-sankey layouts.
In reports, ads and assignments it fits budget allocation, conversion paths, material or energy flows. Skip it when the audience only needs a start-vs-end waterfall.
Mistakes
- Failure modes 1 — the audience only needs a start-vs-end waterfall
- Failure modes 2 — 3-D pies and perspective bars
- Failure modes 3 — Dual axes that fake a correlation
- Failure modes 4 — Truncated axes that shout a small delta
- Failure modes 5 — Legend only, no direct labels
- Failure modes 6 — Missing source, unit or period
Fixes
- Fixes 1 — Return to budget allocation, conversion paths, material or energy flows.
- Fixes 2 — Flat, one axis, direct labels.
- Fixes 3 — Color-blind-safe palette plus pattern.
- Fixes 4 — Rewrite the title as a claim and add a source line.
Sankey flow stories: honour link width proportional to flow between nodes, and switch when the audience only needs a start-vs-end waterfall.