Wellformedness properties in Euler diagrams : which should be used?

Euler diagrams are often used to visualize intersecting data sets in applications such as criminology; genetics, medicine, and computer file systems. One interesting aspect of these diagrams is that some data sets cannot be drawn without breaking one or more "wellformedness properties," wh...

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Publié dans:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics. - 1996. - 18(2012), 7 vom: 29. Juli, Seite 1089-100
Auteur principal: Rodgers, Peter (Auteur)
Autres auteurs: Zhang, Leishi, Purchase, Helen
Format: Article en ligne
Langue:English
Publié: 2012
Accès à la collection:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics
Sujets:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Description
Résumé:Euler diagrams are often used to visualize intersecting data sets in applications such as criminology; genetics, medicine, and computer file systems. One interesting aspect of these diagrams is that some data sets cannot be drawn without breaking one or more "wellformedness properties," which are considered to reduce the user comprehension of the diagrams. However, it is possible to draw the same data with different diagrams, each of which breaks different wellformedness properties. Hence, some properties are "swappable," so motivating the study of which of the alternatives would be best to use. This paper reports on the two empirical studies to determine how wellformedness properties affect comprehension. One study was with abstract data, the other was with concrete data that visualized students' enrollment on university modules. We have results from both studies that imply that diagrams with concurrency or disconnected zones perform less well than other some other properties. Further, we have no results that imply that diagrams with brushing points adversely affect performance. Our data also indicate that nonsimple curves are preferred less than diagrams with other properties. These results will inform both human diagram designers and the developers of automated drawing systems on the best way to visualize data using Euler diagrams
Description:Date Completed 01.10.2012
Date Revised 11.05.2012
published: Print
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1941-0506
DOI:10.1109/TVCG.2011.143