Dataskera

Marimekko Chart

A Marimekko carries two proportions at once. Column width is each category's share of the grand total, segment height is each part's share of its own column. One picture shows which markets are big and how each of them is composed, without putting a second chart next to the first.

Data Requirements

Your Tableau worksheet should include:

  • 1 Dimension for the Column encoding. One column per value. Its width comes from the measure, not from a separate field.
  • 1 Dimension for the Segment encoding. The stack inside each column, coloured and ordered consistently across all of them.
  • 1 Measure for the Value encoding. Feeds both proportions: the column widths and the segment heights.

Add Marimekko Chart to your worksheet

First, download the manifest file. It tells Tableau where to load the extension from.

Download marimekko.trex

Direct link: https://dataskera.com/downloads/marimekko.trex

Then, in Tableau:

  1. On the Marks card, open the Mark type dropdown, and under Viz Extensions choose Add Extension.
  2. In the Add an Extension dialog, choose Access Local Viz Extensions, then open the marimekko.trex file you just downloaded.
  3. When Tableau asks, allow the extension to access the data in the workbook.
  4. The welcome screen appears. Sign in with your Dataskera account, or on Tableau Desktop choose Use on Desktop without an account. See Signing in & access below.
  5. Build the chart: drag a dimension onto Column, a second onto Segment, and a measure onto Value.
Tableau Server or Cloud:
A site admin must allow the extension by adding its URL to the site's safe list, and the view needs the Download Summary Data permission. Extension URL: https://vizextension.dataskera.com/marimekko/marimekko.html

Signing in & access

Marimekko Chart is free. Whether you need to sign in depends only on what you are doing. Viewing a dashboard never asks for an account, and authoring is free too.

Viewing a dashboard
No account

People who only view a dashboard are never asked to sign in and are never blocked.

Editing on Tableau Desktop
Optional

Sign in, or continue without an account in a single click.

Editing on Server or Cloud
Free account

Sign in with your Dataskera account to author on the web.

No account yet? Create one free in under a minute. No credit card required.

Format panel

Open the Format panel from the extension menu to customize the chart. It is for the dashboard author and is not shown to viewers. It has four tabs:

  • Layout: column order, segment stacking order, how many columns before the rest merge into one, the gaps between columns and segments, click to select, background.
  • Labels: what the segment labels show, the column labels and whether they carry the column share, the percentage axis, number format and font.
  • Color: a palette, a precise colour per category, and the overall opacity.
  • Legend: show or hide it, its position around the chart, an optional show/hide toggle for viewers, the colour swatch, and the content of each entry.
  • Tooltip: show or hide it, its colours, decimals, and a template you write yourself from the placeholders the chart provides.
A tail of slivers carries nothing:
Set a column cap and everything past it becomes one column holding its true share of the total. Without it, a long catalogue ends in columns three pixels wide that nobody can read or click.
Labels never overprint:
A column too narrow for its own label leaves the label out and says how many it left out; hovering still names the column. Where the name fits but the share does not, the share goes and the name stays.
A share cannot be negative:
Rows with a negative value are excluded and counted in a note, because a negative slice of a stacked total has no meaning.
One click, one cell:
With click to select on, clicking a segment selects that column and that segment together on the worksheet, so an action lands on one market in one channel rather than on the whole column.