Creating A Heatmap Based on Spotzi's Premium Data

Learn how to visualize premium demographic and consumer behaviour data by building a custom heatmap using your purchased data in Spotzi.

Vlada Cernega
27 steps
3 minutes

Spotzi

Use Spotzi Data To Create A Dashboard

Navigate to <https://app.spotzi.com/hub/workspace> and click on the "Analytics" portal.

Click "My Purchased Data".

You'll be directed to our data catalogue, and an automatic filter selecting only the datasets you've already purchased will be applied. Use the search bar or the data filters to select the dataset you'd like to use for your heatmap.

Select the dataset that contains the data variables you'd like to use in your heatmap. For example, select the "Consumer Behaviour: Entertainment - Canada" dataset if you would like to create a heatmap of people's entertainment habits across Canadian dissemination areas.

Click "Add to workspace".

Name your dashboard, or leave the default title. Click "Create Dashboard".

A dashboard will be created. This dashboard will be styled a certain way by default, and this default styling may vary. You can customize the styling and create a heatmap from this base.

Create A Heatmap

Click on the "Layers" icon to open up the dashboard's layers panel.

Your dashboard layers will appear here. If you haven't added any additional data layers to your project, then you will only see the layer that you started this dashboard with here. Select the layer that you would like to customize.

Navigate to the "Fill color" field and click on the dropdown under the "Color based on" styling option.

All of the data columns in your selected dataset/layer will appear here. Select the column that you would like to use to build a heatmap. All of the data from this column will be distributed across the objects in your layer (these objects can be points, or polygons such as postal codes).

A color will be assigned to each object on your map. These colors and the criteria for where they're assigned depend on the styling rules set for your layer.

Customize Your Heatmap: Steps & Palette Selection

Click on the "Color palette" dropdown to select a color palette.

Heatmap steps are automatically generated based on the range of values in your selected data column. By default, the system creates a 5-step heatmap that evenly distributes across this range. You can customize this by adjusting the number of steps or by defining your own value ranges in the Styling Options panel. **Note:** You cannot exceed the dataset’s predefined **maximum value**. This value represents the highest recorded value for the selected variable across your entire dataset.

Customize Your Heatmap: Legend

Your legend will update to reflect the changes made to your steps and color range. You may also give your legend a title, or replace the default legend title that may already be applied to your layer.

A title will offer map viewers more context for the data being displayed.

Customize Your Heatmap: Custom Color Palette

You may click the color swatches of any heatmap step to choose a custom color for that step. This will update the colors displayed on your map.

Customize Your Heatmap: Other

You may change the opacity of both the fill and borders of your layer objects. You may also select a border color, or turn borders off completely. The "Labels" option allows you to toggle on labels for each of your layer objects, based on the data in your selected label column.

Click this icon to reset your layer styling by assigning the same fill color to every object on your map.

Limit Your Heatmap to a Selected Region

Click the filter icon.

You may filter your heatmap using any of our filter options. You may use Spotzi Explorer filters if the layer you're filtering on is the dashboard's base layer (the layer that you started this project with). If the data you would like to use for filtering already exists in the dataset you started with, then you can simply create a "Layer Data" filter. This is possible even if the layer you're working on did not originate in the dashboard you're working in. [How to use Spotzi Explorer filters](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Filter_Overview_Spotzi_Explorer_Filter__KSNeFFSdTaKb-s3-GHxxaA) [How to use Layer Data filters](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Filter_Overview_Layer_Data_Filter__JcDQQTqAQ4aof3J5-Sr0Rg) [How to use POI Proximity filters](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Filter_Overview_POI_Proximity_Filter__8eiMi5QJR5WrgGDqUZcqBQ) [How to use Spatial Overlap filters](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Filter_Overview_Spatial_Overlap_Filter__dO6DZJg0Tn65jhn-2RjFBQ)

Click "Add filter".

Select the column you would like to use for filtering. We can select the "Municipality" column if we want to limit our Canadian heatmap to Toronto.

Search for the municipality or municipalities you would like to limit your map to.

Select the values you're looking for and click "Done".

Click "Apply".

Your heatmap will now be limited to layer objects which match the filter(s) you selected.