Datellers’ Sunray Chart User Guide

Contents

1. What is a Sunray Chart?
2. Sunray Chart Use Cases
3. How to use the Sunray Chart in Power BI
4. Formatting Options in the Sunray Chart

I. What is a Sunray Chart?

The Sunray Chart is a powerful strategic visualization tool used to display the flow of data, tasks, or processes through different stages or categories. It helps track how tasks or milestones progress across various stages, often with a focus on time, but can also represent any sequence of steps or phases in a process. The chart is particularly useful for showing how work or data is distributed across multiple categories and how it transforms through distinct stages. 

Structure of the Sunray Chart

• Column (Stages): The map consists of a column representing the different stages that the process or tasks move through. These stages can be time-based (e.g., year, month) or represent any sequential flow, such as project phases or task milestones. The stages define the sequence in which tasks progress, helping users understand how things evolve from one stage to another. 
• Categories: The categories are distributed across two sides of the map—top and right or bottom and left. These categories could represent departments, types of tasks, or other relevant divisions. This division helps balance the flow of data or tasks across the map, providing a clear and organized view of how each category contributes to the overall transformation.
• Nodes: Nodes are placed within specific sectors that correspond to relevant stages or categories. These nodes represent individual tasks, milestones, or key data points. They can be labeled with relevant information such as task names, department names, or metrics. Additionally, nodes can be heatmapped to reflect different levels of importance or status, using color variations to indicate progress or urgency. Nodes may also have different shapes to represent various types of tasks, helping to visually differentiate between categories or task types. 
• Additional Elements
  • Node Labels: You can add descriptive text beneath each node in the chart. By assigning a relevant field to the node label, the chart will automatically display that value for every data point. This makes it easier to understand the nodes and ensures your chart remains clear and informative. 
  • Node Icon: You can assign specific icons to nodes in your chart, providing visual cues that help distinguish between categories of data points. By adding a field to the Node Icon, you can control which icon appears for each node making it easy to differentiate nodes by category, status, or any other logic you choose. You can further customize the appearance of these icons using the available formatting options
  • Tooltip: Display extra information when hovering over a node in the chart. By placing any field in this section, viewers can see additional details about the nodes without cluttering the visual. This feature helps keep the chart clean and focused while still giving users access to important context. With tooltips, users can view not only the basic node information but also any supplementary details you choose to include. 
  • Custom Sort: The Sort field lets you control the order in which data appears on the chart, whether by node or category. Add a field here to sort by values such as date, score, or any custom order. The field also becomes available under the Power BI Sort Axis option, giving you more flexibility in organizing the visual. 

II. Sunray Chart Use Cases

1. Project Milestone Tracking: Track project progress across stages like Planning, Design, and Development, showing how tasks evolve through different phases. 
2. Sales Pipeline Management: Visualize sales leads as they move through stages like Lead Generation, Qualification, and Closed Deal, helping identify bottlenecks. 
3. Customer Journey Mapping: Track customers through stages like Awareness, Consideration, and Purchase, understanding their journey and areas for improvement. 
4.  Supply Chain Management: Track products or materials through stages such as Sourcing, Manufacturing, and Delivery, helping identify delays in the supply chain. 
5. Marketing Campaign Tracking: Monitor marketing campaigns across stages like Planning, Execution, and Analysis, helping assess campaign performance. 
6. Product Development Stages: Follow the stages of product development, from Conceptualization to Launch, ensuring all milestones are met on time. 
7. Benchmarking Divisions: Comparing the progress of divisions to measure how close they are to achieving a common strategic goal.

III. How to use the Sunray Chart in Power BI?

1. Add the required data in the data fields. There are four data fields as follows:

2. Try the following features:

1. Converging or Diverging Flow Options: The Sunray Chart can be designed to either converge or diverge, depending on the flow of data. In a converging chart, data points move towards a central point, while in a diverging chart, data flows outward from a central node, providing flexibility in visualizing different types of data relationships.

Figure 1: Converging Sunray Chart

Figure 2: Diverging Sunray Chart

2. Drilldown Capability for In-Depth Exploration: The Sunray Chart allows users to drill down into columns, enabling a more detailed, zoomed-in view of specific stages. This feature helps users explore data at different levels and focus on particular stages.

3. Drill through Capabilities: The Sunray Chart supports drillthrough functionality, allowing users to right-click on any node/data point and open another detailed page with more in-depth information related to that specific data point.

4. Conditional Colour Formatting for Heatmapping: The Sunray Chart supports conditional colour formatting, enabling users to apply heatmapping rules based on Power BI’s conditional formatting options. This allows nodes to be dynamically colored based on specific criteria.

5. Customizable Node Icons for Clearer Representation: Users can customize the icons used for nodes, offering a variety of options to represent different task types, categories, or statuses. This feature makes it easier to distinguish between different types of nodes visually. For Example: 

6. Fully Customizable Design with Colour and Font Adjustments: The Sunray Chart is fully customizable, allowing users to modify colours, fonts, and other design elements. This flexibility ensures the chart can be tailored to fit any branding or design preference.

7. Custom Sort:  Users can add any field to the Custom Sort well and then sort the data using the Sort Axis option in Power BI.

IV. Formatting Options in the Sunray Chart

The Sunray Chart comes with an array of customisations. Following is a list of the formatting options that can be applied to the Sunray Chart from the ‘Format Visual’ pane over and above the General formatting options:

1. Layout – Expanding ‘Layout gives the following formatting options:

Grid  – Expanding ‘Grid’ under Layout gives the following formatting options:

State 1  – Expanding ‘State 1’ under Layout gives the following formatting options:

State 2  – Expanding ‘State 2’ under Layout displays the same formatting options as State 1, shown at the top right with identical settings.

2. Node– Expanding ‘Node’ gives the following formatting options:

3. Node Icon – Expanding ‘Node Icon; under Node gives the following formatting options:

4. Column– Expanding ‘Column’ gives the following formatting options:

5. Category – Expanding ‘Category’ gives the following formatting options: