Sunburst and Icicle Plots

Sunburst and Icicle Plots

Sunburst

It is a technique that shows hierarchical structure and, at the same time, aims to be as scalable as treemaps.

The center is the root node. Areas are proportionate to node values. Every layer has children of the nodes in the previous layer.

As shown, it uses a radial layout.

Icicle Plot

It is essentially the same as a sunburst, but doesn't use a radial layout.

The top layer is the root node, areas are proportionate to node values, and every layer has the child nodes of the nodes in the layer above it.

They use space less efficiently, but make it easier to perceive hierarchy.