An alluvial chart is a type of flow diagram originally developed to represent changes in structure over time. They can be used to visualize any type of change in group composition, for example between countries, states or over time.
Alluvial charts tend to be used for multi-dimensional (or multivariate) data analysis. Each block represents clusters of nodes and the flow paths between the blocks represent changes over time in the structure of these node clusters. They highlight important structural changes that can be further emphasized by color, and make identification of major transitions easy.
Adding an alluvial chart to your project
- In the Infographics editor, select Add chart in the left-side toolbar.
- Find the chart in the list (you can use the search bar at the top) and click on its thumbnail or drag and drop the chart onto the canvas.
Adding data to the alluvial chart
To edit the data:
- Double-click on the chart, or
- Click on the chart and select Edit data in the top-right corner of the editor.
The datasheet has placeholders to show correct formatting. Here’s how to structure it:
- Decide the stages (left → right)
Pick 3–5 categorical “steps” you want to show.
Examples:
- Customer journey: Acquisition → Engagement → Outcome
- HR: Department → Role level → Gender
- Nobel Laureate: Continent → Genre → Sex
- Customer journey: Acquisition → Engagement → Outcome
- Choose your table shape
- Row-per-entity (recommended): one row for each person/customer/item. The tool will count identical paths automatically.
- Aggregated paths: one row per unique path with a Count/Weight column.
- Populate the columns (typical 4-column sheet)
- Column A — ID (optional): a unique label for each entity (e.g., CustomerID, Nobel Laureate). Not visualized—useful for cleaning/deduping.
- Column B — Stage 1: first categorical bucket (e.g., Acquisition Channel / Continent).
- Column C — Stage 2: second categorical bucket (e.g., Engagement Type / Genre).
- Column D — Stage 3: third categorical bucket (e.g., Purchase Outcome / Sex).
- (Optional) Column E — Count/Weight: only if each row represents many identical entities; otherwise omit (implicit weight = 1).
- Clean before you upload
- Keep labels consistent (e.g., “Social Media” ≠ “Social media”).
- Avoid blanks; use “Unknown/Other” if needed.
- Limit categories per stage (ideally ≤10–12) to keep flows readable.
- In the chart’s data panel, assign your Stage columns in order (B, C, D) and, if present, set Count/Weight as the value field.
You can also add data by uploading XLS, XLSX, and CSV files, connecting your chart to a Google Drive document, connecting your chart to a JSON feed, as well as connecting to an online database. Just make sure the data matches the formatting of the alluvial chart.
Customizing the alluvial chart
Use the Settings tab in the panel on the right to style your chart:
- Chart properties. Select whether you want to display the values, let viewers download the data you've visualized, and more.
- Color. Set the color of the bars and adjust the value color.
- Fonts. Change the font of the chart and adjust its color and size. Specific text elements can be edited under Advanced settings.
- Legend. Enable or disable the legend, and adjust its positioning.
- Tooltips. Enable or disable tooltips.
- Accessibility. Make your chart accessible to viewers using screen readers by adding a label and a description.
Making the chart more interactive
All of Infographic's charts are interactive – tooltips are displayed when viewers hover over the chart, and viewers can interact with the legend. But you can make the chart even more engaging. Here are some of the options:
- Add links to specific flows or blocks to connect to websites or other pages in your project. Learn more in the articles on adding URL links to content in Infographics, linking pages in Infographics, and adding links to tabs of charts and maps in Infographics.
- Use callouts: add them to your data visualization to create an extra layer of content. Learn more in the article about using callouts in Infographics.
- Enable interactivity hints so that your viewers know they can interact with the chart. Learn more in the article about using interactivity hints in Infographics.
Downloading and sharing the alluvial chart
Downloading
To download the project you're working on, select the Download option in the top right corner of the editor. Next, choose one of the available file formats at the top and select Download to save the project to your computer.
If you'd like to download the chart straight from the editor, right-click on it, select Export as... in the context menu, and pick the file format.
Learn more in the article about downloading your content in Infographics.
Sharing and embedding
Select Share in the top right corner of the editor to access the project's privacy settings. Choose whether you want to keep it private and use a private link to share the content with others or make it public and visible on search engines. Read more in the article about changing privacy settings in Infographics.
To learn more about embedding the chart on your website, read the article on embedding your Infographics content.