How to create a Heatmap in Google Sheets

Data visualization is a powerful tool for understanding complex information at a glance. Among the various visualization techniques, heatmaps stand out for their ability to represent data through color-coded matrices. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to create an effective heatmap in Google Sheets, a free and accessible tool that’s widely used for data analysis and visualization.

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What is a Heatmap?

A heatmap is a visual representation of data where values are depicted by color. The term “heat” in heatmap refers to the intensity of the color, which corresponds to the magnitude of the value. Heatmaps are particularly useful for identifying patterns, trends, and outliers in large datasets.

Example:

Let’s say you’re collecting speed data for several consecutive road sections over a few days. Your goal is to identify sections with lower speeds that might contribute to overall travel time increase. To achieve this, structure your data with road sections as columns, dates as rows, and speed values in the corresponding cells. Applying a heatmap to this data will visually highlight road sections with consistently lower speeds, as illustrated in the following image.

You may also interested in: Automate Google Sheets to get Google Map Travel Time and Distance.

Example for Google Sheets Heatmap

Why you should use Heatmaps

  • Quick visualization of data: Heatmaps make it easy to identify patterns, trends, and outliers at a glance.
  • Understanding relationships: They can reveal correlations between different variables.
  • Prioritizing information: By highlighting areas of high or low value, heatmaps help focus attention on important data points.

Steps to Create a Heatmap in Google Sheets

The steps for creating heatmaps include data preparation, applying conditional formatting, and customizing.

Step 01: Data preparation

To create a heatmap, you need to prepare your data set as shown in the image below. The columns represent one dimension, such as road sections, while the rows represent another dimension, like time (hour). The cells contain the values you want to visualize.

Sample Data for Google Sheets Heatmap

Step 02: Applying Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is the key to creating a heatmap in Google Sheets. Here’s how to apply it:

  • Select the entire range of data you want to include in your heatmap.
  • Click on the “Format” in the menu bar and select “Conditional formattings”.
  • Go to the “Color scale” tab. When you do that, you will see the color is applied to the range. Let’s customize this to meet our requirements.
  • Ensure the data range is correct in the “Apply to range” field.
  • You can change the color palate from the “Preview” section under the “Formatting rules“.
  • You can set the colors for minimum, maximum, and mid values under the “Formatting rules” section.
how to create a heatmap in Google Sheets
Google Sheets Conditional Formatting for Heatmap

Step 03: Customize Your Heatmap

The default settings for a heatmap in Google Sheets may not always highlight the specific data you need to emphasize. In such cases, you can customize the Minpoint, Midpoint, and Maxpoint settings to better showcase the important data.

Minpoint and Maxpoint Adjustments:

  • Minpoint: By default, the Minpoint is set to the smallest value in your dataset. Increasing the Minpoint means that values below this threshold will all be highlighted with the same color, regardless of their actual value. This can be useful for highlighting data that meets a minimum criterion.
  • Maxpoint: Similarly, the Maxpoint is set to the largest value by default. Decreasing the Maxpoint will cause all values above this threshold to be colored the same, making it easier to identify values that exceed a certain level.

Midpoint Adjustments:

  • The Midpoint setting is crucial for directing attention to the most important values in your dataset. By setting a specific Midpoint, you can highlight data around a critical threshold. For example, if you’re monitoring vehicle speeds and need to ensure they stay above 30 km/h, setting the Midpoint to 30 will make speeds below 30 km/h more noticeable with the color chosen for lower values. This helps easily identify critical values in your dataset.

By customizing these points, you can create a heatmap that effectively highlights the data you need to focus on, making it a powerful tool for analysis and decision-making.

Wrapping Up

Creating a heatmap in Google Sheets is a straightforward process that can significantly enhance your data analysis capabilities. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can transform your raw data into a visually appealing and insightful heatmap. Whether you’re analyzing sales data, website analytics, project performance, or traffic data, heatmaps are a powerful tool in your Google Sheets toolkit.

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