Beautiful Mekko charts in minutes

A Mekko chart is a chart made of rectangles arranged in a grid, where the width shows the size of a category and the height breaks down that category into smaller parts.

For example, a Mekko chart can show total revenue, but split by product (width) and by region (height).

Mekko charts are useful for business presentations that show market sizing, competitive analysis and product portfolio reviews.

Mosaic plots show how two categories relate to each other, like how smoking rates differ between men and women in a health survey. They're mostly used in statistics and data science.

Mekko charts show how a number breaks down across two dimensions, like how a company’s revenue splits across product lines and regions. They're used in business and finance presentations for market sizing, budget breakdowns, or portfolio reviews.

Marimekko chart is the original name for a Mekko chart. It's named after Marimekko, a Finnish fashion company known for bold, rectangular patterns. Over time, it was shortened to Mekko chart.

Mekko charts are great for comparing categories on two dimensions, like size and composition, providing one view that can show a lot of data and insights on one slide, like:

• Market sizing and market share by segment.
• Budget or cost breakdowns across business units and categories.
• Product portfolio reviews showing both scale and mix.
• Comparing performance across business units.

A Mekko chart isn't always the right chart choice in some situations:

• There are too many categories, which make the rectangles too thin to read without making your audience strain their eyes.
• The categories are so close in size that the width differences are too hard for your audience to see.
• Your audience doesn’t know how to read a Mekko chart, so your takeaway either takes too long to land or is lost completely.
• You only have one category to show, which means a Mekko chart would add complexity when a bar or pie chart would suffice.

A Mekko chart shows composition and relative size, using bars of varying width.

On the other hand, a stacked bar or column chart shows only composition within each category with bars of equal width.

In short, if someone wants know how big one category is compared to the others, the Mekko chart is the right choice.

Mekko charts and mosaic plots use rectangles arranged in a grid to visualize different data dimensions. Width shows the size of a category and height breaks that category into smaller parts.

For example, in a chart showing customer base by segment, column width shows how many customers are enterprise, commercial, or SMB, while the height of each column shows the industry mix, like what share is technology, retail or healthcare.

think-cell is a PowerPoint add-in that creates Mekko charts directly inside your slides, linked to live Excel data. The chart lives in PowerPoint and updates automatically when your data changes.