Marimekko Chart

A Marimekko chart (also known as a Mekko or mosaic chart) displays a measure by using the sizes of rectangles in a hierarchical display.

What is a measure? What is a dimension?

A measure is generally used for aggregation, for example summation, averaging, correlation, etc., within a Crosstab, Chart, Text component, or Gauge. Adding a measure to the ‘Y’ region in a chart displays the computed aggregates by using locations on the Y-axis. Adding a measure to the ‘X’ region displays the computed aggregates by using locations on the X-axis. You can also display aggregates by using color, shape, size, or label.

A dimension is used to break-down the dataset into multiple groups, often within a Crosstab, Chart, or Selection List. Adding a dimension to the ‘X’ region of a Chart distinguishes the different dimension groups by location on the X-axis. Adding a dimension to the ‘Y’ region distinguishes the different dimension groups by location on the Y-axis. You can add multiple dimensions into the ‘X’ or ‘Y’ regions of a Chart, or into the ‘Rows’ or ‘Columns’ regions of a Crosstab, to create multiple grouping levels. You can also distinguish groups in a dimension by using color, shape, size, or label in a Chart.

MekkoConfig1

To create a Marimekko chart, follow the basic steps below:

If you are new to charting, see the following sections first:

Configure Your Data…​

The data source for the chart (data block or data model) should represent dimensions and measures as independent columns or fields, as shown below. See Prepare Your Data for information on how to manipulate your data, if it is not currently in this form. (Note: A properly designed data model will already have the correct structure.)

dataStructureCharts

In some cases (e.g., Pie Chart), you may want your data to provide just a single measure. In other cases (e.g., Line Chart), you may want the data to supply multiple measures. If the data does not provide the correct number of measures, you may be able to alter the number of measures to suit the needs of the chart by “pivoting” or “unpivoting” the data. See Pivot Data in Prepare Your Data for more information about this procedure.

Open a Chart for Editing…​
Watch Video: Create a Chart (Open the Chart Editor)

This video might show an earlier version of the feature or operation that differs in minor ways from the current version.

Follow the steps below to get started with a new Chart. See Basic Charting Steps for more details.

  1. If necessary, create a new Dashboard. (See Create a New Dashboard.)

  2. From the Toolbox panel, drag a Chart component into the Dashboard.

    addingChart

  3. Resize the Chart as desired by dragging the handles.

    resizeChartHandle 1

  4. Press the ’Edit’ button in the center of the Chart or press the ‘Edit’ button edit in the top-right corner.

    ChartEditButton

    This opens the same Visualization Recommender available for creating a new Dashboard. (See Create a New Dashboard.)

  5. To bypass the Recommender, press the ‘Full Editor’ button edit at the top right to open the Chart Editor.

    ChartEditorIntro

To create a Marimekko chart, place a dimension in the ‘X’ region of the Chart Editor to create the X-axis labels, and place the desired Mekko category dimension in the ‘Color’ or ‘Break By’ region of the Chart Editor. The Mekko category dimension determines the grouping in each column of the chart.

To create a grid of charts, place dimensions into the ‘X’ and/or ‘Y’ regions as well. See Trellis Chart (Grid) for more information.
Walkthrough: Marimekko Chart

This example illustrates how to create a Marimekko chart that displays total broken down by state and city.

  1. Create a new Dashboard based on the ‘Sales Explore’ Data Worksheet. For information on how to create a new Data Worksheet, see Create a Data Worksheet.

    The 'Sales Explore' Data Worksheet can be found in Data Worksheet  Examples. You may need to download the examples.zip file from GitHub into your environment. (This requires access to Enterprise Manager.) See Import and Export Assets for instructions on how to import.

  2. Drag a Chart component from the Toolbox to the Dashboard, and press the ‘Edit’ button edit at the top-right corner of the Chart to open the Visualization Recommender. Press the ‘Full Editor’ button edit at the top right to open the Chart Editor. (For more details on creating a chart, see Basic Charting Steps.)

  3. In the Chart Editor, press the ‘Select Chart Style’ button auto chart type and choose the ‘Marimekko’ option. Press the ‘Apply’ button submit.

    MekkoConfig2

  4. Drag the ‘State’ field from the Data Source panel to the ‘X’ region.

  5. Drag the ‘City’ field from the Data Source panel to the ‘Color’ region, and then again to the ‘Text’ region.

  6. Drag the ‘Total’ measure from the Data Source panel to the ‘Y’ region.

    MekkoConfig3

  7. Optional: Press the ‘Edit Color’ button next to the ‘City’ dimension, and choose the desired colors to represent the city values. Press the ‘Apply’ button submit.

    MekkoConfig4

  8. Optional: Drag the ‘Category’ dimension from the Data Source panel to the ‘Break By’ region to break out the data further by category.

  9. Press the ‘Finish’ button submit to close the Editor.

  10. Resize the chart as desired.

    MekkoConfig1

  11. Hover the mouse over the chart to see a tooltip providing full information about each group.

You can proceed to edit the titles, legend, etc. See Basic Charting Steps and Chart Properties for more information. See Add Data Format for information on how to format text on a Chart.