Hi, my name is Phineas. With this blog I would like to share with you my fascination for Sankey diagrams. My goal is to present to you Sankey diagrams I find on the net, and discuss them. I am mainly focusing on the graphical aspect, layout, methodological issues or shortcomings of diagrams. I do not intend to discuss the scientific content or the data behind them. Neither the politics.
To my opinion, Sankey diagrams are underestimated, and should merit a greater attention. Sometimes they are a better choice than a pie or bar chart to visualize information.
I am using Sankey Helper 2.1, STAN 1.1 and e!Sankey 2.0 for drawing my Sankey diagrams. I have used test or demo versions of most of the Sankey diagram software tools available, like S.DRAW, or Sankey 3.1. Although I do find some tools better than others, I don’t intend to endorse any of them.
Acknowledgement: The guys at ifu (e!Sankey) kindly ceded this domain to me. I asked them politely, if I can use it for a blog on Sankey diagrams, and they said ‘yes’. They reserve the right to put up a banner here, but so far this hasn’t happened.
Do you have a Sankey diagram you wish to share? Have you seen an interesting Sankey diagram that should be presented here? Or do you have a great idea what Sankey diagrams can be used for?
Contact me, if you have any question, or leave a comment.
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October 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 am
Dear Phineas,
First i would like to thank you for your blog. it’s really a helper when it comes to Sankey diagrams from a technical point of view.
Honestly, finding a Blog about Sankey encouraged me to write to you.
I work a database analyst, and i was asked by one of my clients to develop an online tool to draw Sankey diagrams ( energy Flows ). I found few programs and tools to do the job but none of them was an online service. i wonder why?
I would appreciate your advice.
Thank you
November 4th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Hello Mokhlis,
thanks for your comment. I am not sure why there are no online Sankey diagram tools. The market for this is probably rather small, and development would probably be costly.
PHineas
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Hi, Phineas,
I just want to congratulate you for this site on Sankey diagrams. The information you have here is extremely useful for someone like me who wants to start using these diagrams.
I also would like to let you know that I totally agree with you in that Sankey diagrams are underestimated, and that they are a great way to communicate.
Thank you for this site!!
March 10th, 2010 at 4:12 am
Phineas,
Hello. I just found your blog. I run an advanced Excel blog and yesterday I posted about the Lawrence Livermore Labs Energy Flow diagram, how it had intrigued me, and how I replicated it in Excel 2007.
I did not know until last night that it was actually a Sankey diagram. One of my readers was kind enough to point this out. I had never heard the term before.
I too am fascinated by these diagrams. I’m considering writing a Sankey Diagram Excel addin. I don’t foresee any problems doing so.
At any rate, please have a look at my post and diagram:
http://excelhero.com/blog
I’d love to hear your comments.
Regards,
Daniel Ferry
excelhero.com/blog