Squarified Treemaps

Abstract

An extension to the treemapmethod for the visualization of hierarchi- cal information, such as directory structures and organization structures, is pre- sented. The standard treemap method often gives thin, elongated rectangles. As a result, rectangles are difficult to compare and to select.Anewmethod is presented to generate lay-outs in which the rectangles approximate squares. To strenghten the visualization of the structure, shaded frames are used around groups of related nodes.