User hints for directed graph drawing

Abstract

This paper investigates an interactive approach where users can help a system to produce nice drawings of directed graphs by giving hints to graph drawing algorithms. Hints can be three kinds of operations: focus on a specific part of the drawing that needs improvement, insertion of layout constraints, and manual changes of the drawing. These hints help the system to escape from local minima, reduce the size of the solution space to be explored, and input domain knowledge. The overall aim is to produce high quality drawings. We present a system based on this approach and a pilot study involving human tests. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.