An Extended Evaluation of the Readability of Tapered, Animated, and Textured Directed-Edge Representations in Node-Link Graphs

Danny Holten (1) , Petra Isenberg (2) , Jarke van Wijk (1) , Jean-Daniel Fekete (2)

1 Department of mathematics and computing science [Eindhoven]
2 AVIZ - Analysis and Visualization

We present the results of a study comparing five directed-edge representations for use in 2D, screen-based node-link diagrams. The goal of this work is to extend the understanding of tradeoffs and best practices for the representation of edges in directed graphs and to help practitioners choose among different options. Our work applies to graphs in which directed links are depicted using lines connecting the nodes. We tested five different edge representations chosen carefully based on user feedback to thoroughly cover the directed-edge design space. We also investigated how the use of pattern compression affects performance and subjective user preference. The article presents detailed results regarding the significant performance and preference differences between directed-edge representations and provides practical recommendations on their use.

Mots clés: information visualization; graph drawing; edge drawing

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Danny Holten, Petra Isenberg, Jarke van Wijk, Jean-Daniel Fekete. An Extended Evaluation of the Readability of Tapered, Animated, and Textured Directed-Edge Representations in Node-Link Graphs. Pacific Visualization Symposium (PacificVis), 2011 IEEE, Mar 2011, Hong Kong, China. 8p. ⟨inria-00548180⟩