Research report: improving browsing in information by the automatic display layout

It is well known that graphical representations could be very helpful to browse in graph structured information. But this promising approach requires the capability of an automatic layout system because the tedious and time consuming task of a manual layout leads to a rejection of this approach by the user. In our approach, we split the task of retrieving information into two phases that are getting the orientation within the network and reading currently visited information. We present layout algorithms for both phases which have the benefit of being flexible and adaptable to individual user requests and ensure the topological consistency, i.e. the stability of the topology of the information layout during a sequence of display layouts. The results show that especially the possibility of an animation of the layout process can assist the user essentially in maintaining the orientation in the information network.