Treemap

ManyEyes: U-M Sponsored Awards 2006. This is a good representation of a large, complex, hierarchical data set. Values are conveyed using color saturation, which lends to immediate and intuitive interpretation of values. However, if someone is looking for something very specific in a large treemap it may be difficult to find it. ManyEyes attempts to address this by providing a search function; however, searching for "Wayne" yields a barely-noticeable yellow highlight in the corner.

Map of the Market. This treemap uses red, black and green to convey values. Normally treemaps should be monochromatic, but what makes this acceptable is that people familiar with the stock market are also familiar with color-coding and know that red means a loss, black means breaking even, and that green means a gain. A major disadvantage with this map, however, is that the color red is more noticeable and thus tends to have a heavier weight in interpretation.