The end result of graph visualization is that people read the graph and understand the data. To make this effective, it is essential to construct visualizations based on how people read graphs. Despite the popularity and importance of graph usage in a variety of application domains, little is known about how people read graphs. The lack of this knowledge has severely limited the effectiveness of graph visualizations. In attempts to understand how people read graphs, we previously observed that people have geodesic-path tendency based on subjective eye tracking data. This paper presents two controlled experiments. One is to approve the existence of the geodesic-path tendency. The other is to examine the effects of this tendency on people in reading graphs. The results show that in performing path search tasks, when eyes encounter a node that has more than one link, links that go toward the target node are more likely to be searched first. The results also indicate that when graphs are drawn with branch links on the path leading away from the target node, graph reading performance can be significantly improved.

Item Type:	Refereed Conference Paper
Keywords:	Graph visualization, graph reading, aesthetic criteria, geodesic-path tendency, evaluation
Research Division:	Information and Computing Sciences
Research Group:	Information Systems
Research Field:	Computer-Human Interaction
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences
UTAS Author:	Huang, W (Dr Tony Huang)
ID Code:	90179
Year Published:	2009
Deposited By:	Information and Communication Technology
Deposited On:	2014-03-27
Last Modified:	2015-02-05
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