Effectiveness and efficiency of using different types of rectangular treemap as diagrams in cartography

Abstract

Treemaps has been used as diagrams in cartography to visualize hierarchical, multivariate, and time series data through the construction of hierarchies. Several algorithms exist for generating Treemaps. Despite the popularity of the Treemap, few studies have analyzed the effectiveness and efficiency of different algorithms. A user study was conducted to evaluate the slice-and-dice, squarified, ordered, strip, and ordered squarified algorithms. In the user study, the accuracy and response time for completing tasks were recorded. The slice-and-dice algorithm was identified as most suitable to represent true hierarchy (intrinsic hierarchy), followed by pivot-by-size. Slice-and-dice was also identified as the most suitable algorithm for representing false hierarchy (imposed hierarchy). When representing time series, slice-and-dice, strip, and ordered squarified algorithms were all determined to be suitable.