Evaluating Animation Parameters for Morphing Edge Drawings

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different animation parameters, including easing techniques and speed, affect user perception and accuracy in morphing edge drawings, a graph visualization style that avoids crossings.

Contribution

It introduces a user study evaluating the impact of easing and speed on morphing edge drawings, providing insights into improving user experience and task accuracy.

Findings

Easing may improve task accuracy in morphing edge drawings.

Participants preferred slower animation speeds.

Easing techniques can reduce eye strain during animations.

Abstract

Partial edge drawings (PED) of graphs avoid edge crossings by subdividing each edge into three parts and representing only its stubs, i.e., the parts incident to the end-nodes. The morphing edge drawing model (MED) extends the PED drawing style by animations that smoothly morph each edge between its representation as stubs and the one as a fully drawn segment while avoiding new crossings. Participants of a previous study on MED (Misue and Akasaka, GD19) reported eye straining caused by the animation. We conducted a user study to evaluate how this effect is influenced by varying animation speed and animation dynamic by considering an easing technique that is commonly used in web design. Our results provide indications that the easing technique may help users in executing topology-based tasks accurately. The participants also expressed appreciation for the easing and a preference for a slow animation speed.