On the usability of Lombardi graph drawings

Purchase, H.C. , Hamer, J., Nöllenburg, M. and Kobourov, S.G. (2012) On the usability of Lombardi graph drawings. In: 20th International Symposium on Graph Drawing, Redmond, WA, USA, 19-21 Sep 2012, pp. 451-462. (doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-36763-2_40)

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36763-2_40

Abstract

A recent line of work in graph drawing studies Lombardi drawings, i.e., drawings with circular-arc edges and perfect angular resolution at vertices. Little is known about the effects of curved edges versus straight edges in typical graph reading tasks. In this paper we present the first user evaluation that empirically measures the readability of three different layout algorithms (traditional spring embedder and two recent near-Lombardi force-based algorithms) for three different tasks (shortest path, common neighbor, vertex degree). The results indicate that, while users prefer the Lombardi drawings, the performance data do not present such a positive picture.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:ISBN: 9783642367625
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Hamer, Dr John and Purchase, Dr Helen
Authors: Purchase, H.C., Hamer, J., Nöllenburg, M., and Kobourov, S.G.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
ISSN:0302-9743

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