Sunburst Graphs

Mike Pettit and Tim Baeder

What is a sunburst graph?

Designed by John Stasko (2002 paper)
Expansion of donut chart to include heirarchical information
Alternative to things like TreeMaps

How is data encoded?

Center is a root node
Each slice coming off of that is a child of that root
Each of those slices have their own children
As we expand outward from the center, we are going deeper in each tree
The angle sweep of a slice corresponds to the value of each node
Additional encodings possible like varying the width of the slice for additional dimensionality

How can interaction improve the sunburst graph?

Angular Detail method

Detail Outside method

Detail Inside method

"Replace Root" method (Play with our implementation below)

D3 Implementation

Modified version of Kerry Rodden's Zoomable Sunburst and Sequences Sunburst

Data: flare.json

Pros and Cons

Pros

Great for navigating heirarchical data
Shown to be more effective at visualizing a “large” dataset
Doesn’t lose the middle layers of hierarchy
More intuitive and easier to learn than alternatives (e.g. Tree map)

Cons

Hard to estimate the exact value using arc length
Small, periphery arcs can be hard to see/analyze without interaction
Not as "space-filling" as alternatives

References