Sunburst Chart

WHAT IS IT?
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This type of visualisation shows hierarchy through a series of rings, that are sliced for each category node. Each ring corresponds to a level in the hierarchy, with the central circle representing the root node and the hierarchy moving outwards from it.

Rings are sliced up and divided based on their hierarchical relationship to the parent slice. The angle of each slice is either divided equally under its parent node or can be made proportional to a value.

WHERE TO USE?

Colour can be used to highlight hierarchal groupings or specific categories. Some use cases for a sunburst chart are:

- Outlining the landing and navigation paths of a website

- Visualising file size of different modules in a software package

- Understanding the revenue sources of a business

- World population broken down into a particular continent, country, region, state, city, town

- Salary expenses of employees across departments in an organisation