Creating Sankey Chart -The Real Easy Way
Author:Bhuvaneswari Selvamani
Date:09/25/2025
Why Sankey Charts Grab Our Attention
1. They Tell a Story Through Flow
Sankey charts visualize movement—of insights, users, or any resource—making abstract data feel dynamic and alive.
· The thickness of the lines instantly communicates magnitude, so we intuitively grasp what’s important.
2. They Use Design Psychology
Proximity: Related nodes are placed close together, helping our brains link concepts effortlessly.
Similarity: Consistent colors and shapes reinforce meaning without cluttering the chart.
Continuity: Smooth, curved paths lead the eye naturally from one point to another, creating a sense of motion and clarity.
So, when well-designed, they don’t just show data—they whisper the story behind it.
Let’s see an example how a Sankey chart can be created. Here we have considered a dataset from which our idea is to demonstrate Gut lining health based on different Ethnicity. This is going to be a two level chart.
We have Self-identity(Ethnicity) as one level and by using Calculated field we have created the Gut Categories as another level.
Step 1: Under marks in Viz Extensions, select Add Extension
Step 2: It takes us to Browse Viz Extensions page, there we can see Sankey as the first option.
Step 3:Select and click Open
Step 4:Now we can see Sankey under the Marks section.
Step 5:Drag and drop Self-Identity on Level
Step 6:Now drag and drop Gut Categories to Level
Step 7: Avoided Null values using Filter options
Step 8:Now let's arrange the chart using Format Extensions
Step 9:Choose the color and modify Link and Level padding as required
Step 10:Now our Sankey chart is created successfully
By following the above steps we can achieve the 2 level Sankey chart, the same way we can also derive the 3 level Sankey chart too.
As part of understanding we can also click on each box and check the flow of data, like explained below for reference
From the above flow we get to know that the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity falls in all Gut Categories. We can check these different scenarios for all the levels used in the visualization.
Thank You
