I have an idea to improve the way data is presented in Treemaps. As we know Treemaps display hierarchical data as a set of nested rectangles. Each level of the hierarchy is represented by a colored rectangle called a branch node. Each branch contains smaller rectangles called leaf nodes.
My idea is to apply varying color saturation to leaf nodes within a given branch node. This way, we can easily identify which rectangle is larger even when the difference between them is small and they appear the same.
For example, instead of three similarly sized red rectangles, we would have three in varying shades of red, from the largest (intense red), through medium (light red), to the smallest (pale red). This would be a useful solution, especially for those who do not fully understand the arrangement of rectangles of a given color.
