Hex Density Chart, also known as a hexbin plot or hexagonal binning, is a type of data visualization used to show the density of points in a two-dimensional dataset. It is particularly useful when dealing with large datasets, where traditional scatter plots can become cluttered and difficult to interpret due to overlapping points. By using hexagonal bins to aggregate data points, a Hex Density Chart can more effectively reveal the underlying patterns and densities within the data.
How It Works
Partitioning: The entire data space is divided into a grid of small, tightly packed hexagons. Each hexagon represents a region in the data plane.
Counting: The number of data points that fall within each hexagon is counted.
Color Coding: The hexagons are then colored based on the count of data points they contain. Typically, a color gradient is used, with darker colors indicating higher densities of points and lighter colors representing lower densities.
Advantages
Reduces Visual Clutter: For dense datasets, a Hex Density Chart provides a clearer view of data distribution compared to a standard scatter plot.
Easy to Interpret: The use of color gradients makes it straightforward to understand the variation in data density.
High Flexibility: The size of the hexagons can be adjusted to suit different dataset sizes, allowing for optimal visualization.
Use Cases
Data Exploration: Useful during the initial analysis phase to quickly grasp the relationships between variables.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Can be used to display the distribution characteristics of spatial data.
User Behavior Analysis: For example, in web clickstream analysis, to identify hotspots of user activity on a webpage.
Hex Density Chart Generator is a powerful chart maker for better understanding and communicating the patterns and trends in complex datasets. You can input your dataset and customize chart settings to create a beautiful hex density chart.
Libraries in Use
d3: https://d3js.org
d3-hexbin: https://github.com/d3/d3-hexbin
saveSvgAsPng: https://github.com/exupero/saveSvgAsPng