Influence of Container Resolutions on the Layout Stability of Squarified and Slice-And-Dice Treemaps

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the layout stability for the squarify and slice-and-dice treemap layout algorithms when changing the visualization containers resolution. We also explore how rescaling a finished layout to another resolution compares to a recalculated layout, i.e. fixed layout versus changing layout. For our evaluation, we examine a real world use-case and use a total of 240000 random data treemap visualizations. Rescaling slice-and-dice or squarify layouts affects the aspect ratios. Recalculating slice-and-dice layouts is equivalent to rescaling since the layout is not affected by changing the container resolution. Recalculating squarify layouts, on the other hand, yields stable aspect ratios but results in potentially huge layout changes. Finally, we provide guidelines for using rescaling, recalculation and the choice of algorithm.