Tree Illustrator: Interactive Construction of Tree Visualizations

Guozheng Li, Min Tian, Qinmei Xu, Michael J. McGuffin, Xiaoru Yuan

Abstract: We present Tree Illustrator, an interactive authoring tool of tree visualizations. Tree Illustrator is based on GoTree, a declarative grammar allowing users to create tree visualizations by configuring three aspects: visual elements, layout, and coordinate system. Within the set of all possible tree visualization techniques, we identify a subset of techniques that are both "unit-decomposable" and "axis-decomposable" (terms we define). For tree visualizations within this subset, Tree Illustrator provides the users with flexible and fine-grained control over the parameters of the techniques, supporting not only existing techniques but also undiscovered and hybrid visualizations.