Heat Map based reports in Appian

Question

Hi All, 
 We have a business requirement wherein the customer wants a heat map or similar representation at a functionality level based on usage and SLAs. For example: if a process has multiple tasks/stages/nodes, they would like to see which nodes were hit many times as well as count of SLA breach. 
 Kindly provide your suggestions. 
 
 Thanks. 
 Hitesh

Dave Lewis · Answer

The three possibilities that come to mind are: 
 Array of Card Layouts: Would be very good for a small set. I demonstrated to myself during last hackathon that too many card layouts as buttons, and rules start to slow down, somewhere around the 40 or so mark 
 Array of Image components: You would just save a png of a red square, and orange one, a yellow one, etc. for all colors you need. This could also easily get really slow. 
 Array of richText black squares: You could use either Unicode for different colored squares via char() function or the black square (or Stop) RichTextIcon. If you go with the latter, you'd set the hexidecimal value for each square's color in real time. Rich text might be better performance than the others, so you can get the most squares onto the screen at one time, but also the most limited in your ability to customize the final look. 
 It all really depends on how many data points you need to display at once.