Arc and Swarm-based Representations of Customer's Flows among Supermarkets

Representing large amounts of flows involves dealing with the representation of directionality and the reduction of visual cluttering. This article describes the application of two flow representation techniques to the visualization of transitions of customers among supermarkets over time. The first approach relies in arc representations together with a combination of methods to represent directionality of transitions. The other approach uses a swarm-based system in order to reduce visual clutter, bundling edges in an organic fashion and improving clarity.