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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.
Software
- d3-sankey — Layout algorithm for Sankey diagrams - BSD-3-Clause. · BSD-3-Clause · github.com/d3/d3-sankey
- ECharts sankey — Batteries-included Sankey series for dashboards. · Apache-2.0 · github.com/apache/echarts
- Plotly.js — Includes Sankey traces for analysis apps. · MIT · github.com/plotly/plotly.js
- Mermaid flowchart — Text alternative when interaction is unnecessary. · MIT · github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid
- Funnel twin — Simpler stage widths when Sankey is overkill. · CC0 examples · github.com/Tool-Lifes/viz-atlas
Exports
- Exports 1 — SVG
- Exports 2 — PDF
- Exports 3 — EMF/SVG into slides (no screenshots)
- Exports 4 — SVG for web, PDF for print
Accessibility
- Accessibility 1 — Never hue alone. Stack pattern, label and position.
- Accessibility 2 — 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large marks.
- Accessibility 3 — Short alt text on the chart; numbers also as an HTML table.
- Accessibility 4 — Motion only as emphasis. Honour prefers-reduced-motion.
Sankey flow stories: honour link width proportional to flow between nodes, and switch when the audience only needs a start-vs-end waterfall.