The 'Mental Map' versus 'Static Aesthetic' Compromise in Dynamic Graphs : A User Study

The design of automatic layout algorithms for single graphs is a well established field, and some recent studies show how these algorithms affect human understanding. By contrast, layout algorithms for graphs that change over time are relatively immature, and few studies exist to evaluate their effectiveness empirically. This paper presents two new dynamic graph layout algorithms and empirical investigations of how effective these algorithms are with respect to human understanding. Central to each algorithm is the “mental map”: the degree to which the layout supports continuous understanding. This work aims to evaluate the importance of the mental map, alongside traditional static graph aesthetics, in answering questions about dynamic graphs. We discover that a simple concept of the mental map is not sufficient for increasing understanding of the graph.