A picture says more than a thousand words...

... but some pictures tell you more than other pictures. Sankey diagrams, by using proportional flow widths and colored arrows, get the message across much better than conventional flow diagrams.

Have a look at these two diagrams below. They represent the steel scrap flows in the United States in 1998 (taken from Fenten, M. D.: Iron and Steel Recycling in the United States in 1998, found at http://pubs.usgs.gov). The first is the original b/w graph, with boxes and simple arrows. The other was made with e!Sankey in no more than 20 minutes. It really shows where the main flows are going.

Hover the mouse cursor over the thumbnail pics to enlarge!

Original flow diagram showing simple arrow lines		A diagram with the same data made with e!Sankey