Abstract:This paper presents the first design principles that optimize the visualization of sets using linear diagrams. These principles are justified through empirical studies that evaluate the impact of graphical features on task performance. Linear diagrams represent sets using straight line segments, with line overlaps corresponding to set intersections. This work builds on recent empirical research which establishes that linear diagrams can be superior to prominent set visualization techniques, namely Euler and Ve… Show more
“…Techniques already exist for reducing the number of line segments, as implemented in the linear diagram generator used to create the diagrams in our study [4]. A key future research goal is to establish the impact of clutter in linear diagrams on user task performance.…”
Abstract. Linear diagrams are an effective way of representing sets and their relationships. The topological and graphical properties of linear diagrams can affect perceived relative levels of clutter. This paper defines four different measures of clutter for linear diagrams. Participants in an empirical study were asked to rank linear diagrams according to their perception of clutter. We analyzed the correlation between how the clutter measures ranked linear diagrams compared to the overall ranking derived from the participants' perceptions. We concluded that the clutter measure which counts the number of line segments best matches participants' perception.
“…Techniques already exist for reducing the number of line segments, as implemented in the linear diagram generator used to create the diagrams in our study [4]. A key future research goal is to establish the impact of clutter in linear diagrams on user task performance.…”
Abstract. Linear diagrams are an effective way of representing sets and their relationships. The topological and graphical properties of linear diagrams can affect perceived relative levels of clutter. This paper defines four different measures of clutter for linear diagrams. Participants in an empirical study were asked to rank linear diagrams according to their perception of clutter. We analyzed the correlation between how the clutter measures ranked linear diagrams compared to the overall ranking derived from the participants' perceptions. We concluded that the clutter measure which counts the number of line segments best matches participants' perception.
“…Mechanical Turk provides access to a diverse participant population [36], [37], and is considered a valid platform for evaluation in general [37], [38], as well as specifically in the context of visualization studies [39]. Many recent visualization studies are crowdsourced [12], [40], [41], [42], [43] and specific platforms for online evaluations are developed, including GraphUnit, designed for online evaluation of network visualizations [44].…”
Visualizing network data is applicable in domains such as biology, engineering, and social sciences. We report the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of the two primary techniques for showing network data: node-link diagrams and adjacency matrices. Specifically, an evaluation with a large number of online participants revealed statistically significant differences between the two visualizations. Our work adds to existing research in several ways. First, we explore a broad spectrum of network tasks, many of which had not been previously evaluated. Second, our study uses two large datasets, typical of many real-life networks not explored by previous studies. Third, we leverage crowdsourcing to evaluate many tasks with many participants. This paper is an expanded journal version of a Graph Drawing (GD'17) conference paper. We evaluated a second dataset, added a qualitative feedback section, and expanded the procedure, results, discussion, and limitations sections.
“…Note that Mechanical Turk provides access to a diverse participant population [33,31], and is considered a valid platform for evaluation in general [38,31], as well as specifically in the context of visualization studies [23]. Many recent visualization studies are crowdsourced [15,35,28,43,14] and specific platforms for online evaluations are developed, including GraphUnit designed for online evaluation of network visualizations [37].…”
Visualizing network data is applicable in domains such as biology, engineering, and social sciences. We report the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of the two primary techniques for showing network data: node-link diagrams and adjacency matrices. Specifically, an evaluation with a large number of online participants revealed statistically significant differences between the two visualizations. Our work adds to existing research in several ways. First, we explore a broad spectrum of network tasks, many of which had not been previously evaluated. Second, our study uses a large dataset, typical of many real-life networks not explored by previous studies. Third, we leverage crowdsourcing to evaluate many tasks with many participants.
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