[R] Combined Marimekko/heatmap

[Neal Humphrey]

Hi all, 

I'm trying to figure out a way to create a data graphic that I haven't ever seen an example of before, but hopefully there's an R package out there for it. The idea is to essentially create a heatmap, but to allow each column and/or row to be a different width, rather than having uniform column and row height. This is sort of like a Marimekko chart in appearance, except that rather than use a single color to represent the category, the color represents a value and all the y-axis heights in each column line up with each other. That way color represents one variable, while the area of the cell represents another. 

In my application, my heatmap has discrete categorical data rather than continuous. Rows are countries, columns are appliances, and I want to scale the width and height of each column to be the fraction of global energy consumed by the country and the fraction of energy use consumed by that appliance type. The color coding would then indicate whether or not that appliance is regulated in that country. 

Any ideas how to make such a chart, or even what it might be called?


Neal Humphrey
NHumphrey at clasponline.org