TY - GEN
T1 - The Impact of Shape on the Perception of Euler Diagrams
AU - Blake, Andrew
AU - Stapleton, Gem
AU - Rodgers, Peter
AU - Cheek, Liz
AU - Howse, John
N1 - The final publication is available at Springer via http://10.1007/978-3-662-44043-8_16
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Euler diagrams are often used for visualizing data collected into sets. However, there is a significant lack of guidance regarding graphical choices for Euler diagram layout. To address this deficiency, this paper asks the question ‘does the shape of a closed curve affect a user’s comprehension of an Euler diagram?’ By empirical study, we establish that curve shape does indeed impact on understandability. Our analysis of performance data indicates that circles perform best, followed by squares, with ellipses and rectangles jointly performing worst. We conclude that, where possible, circles should be used to draw effective Euler diagrams. Further, the ability to discriminate curves from zones and the symmetry of the curve shapes is argued to be important. We utilize perceptual theory to explain these results. As a consequence of this research, improved diagram layout decisions can be made for Euler diagrams whether they are manually or automatically drawn
AB - Euler diagrams are often used for visualizing data collected into sets. However, there is a significant lack of guidance regarding graphical choices for Euler diagram layout. To address this deficiency, this paper asks the question ‘does the shape of a closed curve affect a user’s comprehension of an Euler diagram?’ By empirical study, we establish that curve shape does indeed impact on understandability. Our analysis of performance data indicates that circles perform best, followed by squares, with ellipses and rectangles jointly performing worst. We conclude that, where possible, circles should be used to draw effective Euler diagrams. Further, the ability to discriminate curves from zones and the symmetry of the curve shapes is argued to be important. We utilize perceptual theory to explain these results. As a consequence of this research, improved diagram layout decisions can be made for Euler diagrams whether they are manually or automatically drawn
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-662-44043-8_16
DO - 10.1007/978-3-662-44043-8_16
M3 - Conference contribution with ISSN or ISBN
VL - 8578
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 123
EP - 137
BT - Diagrams 2014
CY - Australia
T2 - Diagrams 2014
Y2 - 1 January 2014
ER -