Where a quantity moves from and to, by the thickness of its ribbons. Write only the flows (links) as from · to · value; the nodes and levels follow.
Sankey - Basic
sankey-basic
A card that draws the flows from a left level to a right level. Use it to see the composition between two breakdowns together, like which product lines each channel's revenue goes to.
Judgment built in (3)
Left nodes are colored orange, pink-red and yellow from the largest value and gray from the fourth on; ribbons take the color of their source node. Right nodes are black bars.
Node order is the order of first appearance in links. Writing both sides from the largest node down keeps the ribbons from crossing as much.
Keep to about five nodes on each side. Past twenty ribbons, fold the small flows into 'Other'.
Sankey - Levels
sankey-levels
A card for flows that run across three or more levels, with one node of the last level singled out. Use it to show how much of what came in remains at the end, like a profit flow that splits revenue into costs and profit, or a budget allocation.
Judgment built in (3)
Levels start at the nodes with no incoming flow and step one level right per flow; nodes with no outgoing flow gather in the last level. Up to four levels.
Write the name of a last-level node in focus and that node and the ribbons leading to it turn blue, ribbons to the other last-level nodes gray, and the ribbons of earlier levels orange. The earlier levels get a different color so their nodes do not look as if they flow straight into the focus. Left empty, everything is orange.
First-level names sit to the left of their nodes and the other levels' names to the right. Names in the middle levels get a white outline so they stay readable over the ribbons.
