A user study of techniques for visualizing structure and connectivity in hierarchical datasets

Tommy Dang; Paul Murray; Ronak Etemadpour; Angus G. Forbes

A user study of techniques for visualizing structure and connectivity in hierarchical datasets

Tommy Dang, Paul Murray, Ronak Etemadpour, Angus G. Forbes

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many tree layouts have been created for presenting hierarchical data. However, layouts optimized for some tasks are not adequate for others. In this paper, we focus on identifying tree structures and cross-links generated by hierarchical edge bundling. Our key contribution is the introduction of descriptive features that can be used to characterize trees in terms of their structural and connective qualities. We present a user study with 14 subjects that provides an evaluation of our approach in comparison to other popular tree visualization techniques. The results of the study indicate which techniques are more effective for visual analysis tasks that involve identifying and comparing tree and subtree structures and/or visualizing connections using hierarchical edge bundling.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	45-59
Number of pages	15
Journal	CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Volume	1947
State	Published - 2017
Event	3rd International Workshop on Visualization and Interaction for Ontologies and Linked Data, VOILA 2017 - Vienna, Austria Duration: Oct 22 2017 → …

Keywords

Hierarchical edge bundling
Tree layouts
User evaluation

Cite this

@article{62cae8f865e7417b8a1ad5fbef1a4366,

title = "A user study of techniques for visualizing structure and connectivity in hierarchical datasets",

abstract = "Many tree layouts have been created for presenting hierarchical data. However, layouts optimized for some tasks are not adequate for others. In this paper, we focus on identifying tree structures and cross-links generated by hierarchical edge bundling. Our key contribution is the introduction of descriptive features that can be used to characterize trees in terms of their structural and connective qualities. We present a user study with 14 subjects that provides an evaluation of our approach in comparison to other popular tree visualization techniques. The results of the study indicate which techniques are more effective for visual analysis tasks that involve identifying and comparing tree and subtree structures and/or visualizing connections using hierarchical edge bundling.",

keywords = "Hierarchical edge bundling, Tree layouts, User evaluation",

author = "Tommy Dang and Paul Murray and Ronak Etemadpour and Forbes, {Angus G.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was funded in part by DARPA under ARO contract W911NF-14-1-0395.; 3rd International Workshop on Visualization and Interaction for Ontologies and Linked Data, VOILA 2017 ; Conference date: 22-10-2017",

year = "2017",

language = "English",

volume = "1947",

pages = "45--59",

journal = "CEUR Workshop Proceedings",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - A user study of techniques for visualizing structure and connectivity in hierarchical datasets

AU - Dang, Tommy

AU - Murray, Paul

AU - Etemadpour, Ronak

AU - Forbes, Angus G.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded in part by DARPA under ARO contract W911NF-14-1-0395.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Many tree layouts have been created for presenting hierarchical data. However, layouts optimized for some tasks are not adequate for others. In this paper, we focus on identifying tree structures and cross-links generated by hierarchical edge bundling. Our key contribution is the introduction of descriptive features that can be used to characterize trees in terms of their structural and connective qualities. We present a user study with 14 subjects that provides an evaluation of our approach in comparison to other popular tree visualization techniques. The results of the study indicate which techniques are more effective for visual analysis tasks that involve identifying and comparing tree and subtree structures and/or visualizing connections using hierarchical edge bundling.

AB - Many tree layouts have been created for presenting hierarchical data. However, layouts optimized for some tasks are not adequate for others. In this paper, we focus on identifying tree structures and cross-links generated by hierarchical edge bundling. Our key contribution is the introduction of descriptive features that can be used to characterize trees in terms of their structural and connective qualities. We present a user study with 14 subjects that provides an evaluation of our approach in comparison to other popular tree visualization techniques. The results of the study indicate which techniques are more effective for visual analysis tasks that involve identifying and comparing tree and subtree structures and/or visualizing connections using hierarchical edge bundling.

KW - Hierarchical edge bundling

KW - Tree layouts

KW - User evaluation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032475584&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:85032475584

SN - 1613-0073

VL - 1947

SP - 45

EP - 59

JO - CEUR Workshop Proceedings

JF - CEUR Workshop Proceedings

T2 - 3rd International Workshop on Visualization and Interaction for Ontologies and Linked Data, VOILA 2017

Y2 - 22 October 2017

ER -

A user study of techniques for visualizing structure and connectivity in hierarchical datasets

Abstract

Keywords

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