A heuristic extending the Squarified treemapping algorithm

TL;DR

This paper introduces a heuristic extension to the Squarified Treemap algorithm that improves aspect ratios and homogeneity of treemap visualizations while maintaining low computational costs.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel heuristic that enhances the Squarified Treemap technique by optimizing rectangle aspect ratios and item homogeneity.

Findings

Improved aspect ratios in treemaps

Higher homogeneity among items

Low computational impact of the heuristic

Abstract

A heuristic extending the Squarified Treemap technique for the representation of hierarchical information as treemaps is presented. The original technique gives high quality treemap views, since items are laid out with rectangles that approximate squares, allowing easy comparison and selection operations. New key steps, with a low computational impact, have been introduced to yield treemaps with even better aspect ratios and higher homogeneity among items.