Treemap

Treemaps, ConeTrees and Hyperbolic Trees

TreeMap

Hyperpolic Tree

ConeTree

The healthy outpouring of innovations from the information visualization community has raised important questions about how to measure the efficacy, adoption, and durability of these innovations. This case study reviews the trajectory of three information visualization innovations: treemaps, conetrees, and hyperbolic trees. These three ideas were first published in the early 1990s, so we are able to track academic publications, patents, trade press articles over almost two decades. We offers the information visualization community a history of how certain ideas evolved, influenced others, and were adopted for widespread use and provides example of how such trajectories of historical trends can be visualized. Guidance for innovators and future analysts is offered.

These line charts on the left show the number of trade press articles (top), academic papers (middle), and patents (bottom) published each year matching each innovation. Each line represents a different innovation: treemaps (TM/green), hyperbolic trees (HT/blue), and cone trees (CT/red). Note: the sharp fall in patent figures in the faded area may be to average 32-month USPTO processing time in 2005-2008. These line charts on the right show the number of citations academic papers (top) and patents (bottom) matching each innovation received each year. Each line represents a different innovation: treemaps (TM/green), hyperbolic trees (HT/blue), and cone trees (CT/red). Note: the sharp fall in patent figures in the faded area may be to average 32-month USPTO processing time in 2005-2008.

The total number of citations each academic paper and patent receives is plotted on the left, providing another measure of its influence. The number of citations, or in-degree, a publication receives is plotted on the vertical axis and the publication year is plotted on the horizontal. The rows divide the innovations: cone trees (CT/top), hyperbolic trees (HT/middle), and treemaps (TM/bottom) and the columns publication type: academic papers (left) and patents right).

The citation trajectory of the two top cited academic papers and the two patents with the most consistent or interesting citation patterns is shown on the right. Each colored line represents a publication and indicates how many citations it received each year. This provides another view of their long-term impact. The rows divide the innovations: cone trees (CT/top), hyperbolic trees (HT/middle), and treemaps (TM/bottom) and the columns publication type: academic papers (left) and patents right). Note: the sharp fall in patent figures in the faded area may be to average 32-month USPTO processing time in 2005-2008.

> Shneiderman, B., Dunne, C., Sharma, P., and Wang, P., 2012, Innovation Trajectories for Information Visualizations: Comparing Treemaps, Cone Trees, and Hyperbolic Trees, Information Visualization, 11(2), pp. 87-105.