Kelp Diagrams: Point Set Membership Visualization

Abstract

Abstract We present Kelp Diagrams, a novel method to depict set relations over points, i.e., elements with predefined positions. Our method creates schematic drawings and has been designed to take aesthetic quality, efficiency, and effectiveness into account. This is achieved by a routing algorithm, which links elements that are part of the same set by constructing minimum cost paths over a tangent visibility graph. There are two styles of Kelp Diagrams to depict overlapping sets, a nested and a striped style, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. We compare Kelp Diagrams with two existing methods and show that our approach provides a more consistent and clear depiction of both element locations and their set relations.