ViewFusion: Correlating Structure and Activity Views for Execution Traces

Abstract

Visualization of data on structure and related temporal activity supports the analysis of correlations between the two types of data. This is typically done by linked views. This has shortcomings with respect to efficient space usage and makes mapping the effect of user input into one view into the other view difficult. We propose here a novel, space-efficient technique that 'fuses' the two information spaces - structure and activity - in one view. We base our technique on the idea that user interaction should be simple, yet easy to understand and follow. We apply our technique, implemented in a prototype tool, for the understanding of software engineering datasets, namely static structure and execution traces of the Chromium web browser.