Building quick hex maps

We've done a lot of work with hex cartograms over the years. The tools we've made are often aimed at developers or those who can make a web page. Some people have used our hex map builder tool but that was more for designing hex layouts rather than data visualisation. Now we've created a simple, cut-down, hex map visualisation tool that should make it easier to put data on a hex cartogram and share that view with others.

Our Hexviz tool can load a publicly accessible CSV file (including a Google Sheet) and a publicly available hex layout (as HexJSON) then combine the two. You can then set which column to use to colour the hexagons, which colour scale to use, which column to use for visible labels, and a column to use for tooltips (little popup boxes).

If you don't have (or know of) an existing HexJSON layout, the tool will try to detect if you are using IDs that it recognises. It will look for special codes for UK local authorities, UK Parliamentary constituencies, UK NUTS3 regions, UK Upper Tier Local Authorities, MSOAs, NHS Integrated Care Boards, UK wards (2022 - under development), or US States and use one of those hex layouts if it finds them. But, what if there isn't an existing layout? Well, you can create q and r columns in your table and manually define where each hexagon goes (check out our notes on HexJSON to know what q and r coordinates are).

The interface has been kept pretty minimal so that, if you share a link to a view, people see your hex map prominently.

I hope this new tool is helpful. Let us know if you find it useful.