Briefle words · Data & charts
Heatmap
A grid in which each cell's color shows a value for its row and column, revealing patterns across two dimensions such as hours and weekdays.
Say it to an AI
Show support chat volume by hour of day and day of week to plan staffing. Use a heatmap with weekdays as rows and hours as columns, a single sequential blue scale with a color key; seven lines on one axis would turn into a spaghetti chart.
How an expert would brief the stronger version of “Chat volume by hour and day”.
See it
Try it as a puzzle →Staffing planner in the admin console of a live-chat support tool.
Why: B has a row per weekday and a column per hour, with darker blue for busier hours and a five-step color key underneath.
More ways experts use it
Heatmap of room utilization, rooms by weekday, with a sequential palette from pale to dark blue. Always include a color scale legend (color bar) with the metric name and 0% and 100% end labels, otherwise the shades cannot be read as values.
Room utilization heatmap · Data & charts
Related words
Room 2 · Choosing the chart
Learn “Heatmap” in a five-minute lesson