Hierarchically animated transitions in visualizations of tree structures

  • Authors:
  • David Guilmaine;Christophe Viau;Michael J. McGuffin

  • Affiliations:
  • École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada;École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada;École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

We present an experimental comparison of 4 techniques for smoothly animating changes in a radial tree visualization. Two traditional techniques, linear and staged animation, are compared with two novel techniques a hierarchical animation that proceeds level-by-level through the tree, and a hybrid animation technique that mixes the staged and hierarchical approaches. Users were asked to track changes in nodes of the tree during animated transitions. Results show a significant advantage for the hierarchical and hybrid animation techniques for tracking certain kinds of changes. We then propose guidelines for designing animated transitions. Finally, we present a new popup widget for interactively controlling the progression of an animation that combines advantages of previous widgets.