Abstract. Difference maps are one way to show changes between timeslices in a dynamic graph. They highlight, using colour, the nodes and edges that were added, removed, or persisted between every pair of adjacent timeslices. Although some work has used difference maps for visualization, no user study has been performed to gauge their performance. In this paper, we present a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of difference maps in comparison with presenting the evolution of the dynamic graph over time on three interfaces. We found evidence that difference maps produced significantly fewer errors when determining the number of edges inserted or removed from a graph as it evolves over time. Also, difference maps were significantly preferred on all tasks.
Noteworthy is also the work of Archambault et al. REF who evaluated the effectiveness of difference maps which show changes between time slices of dynamic graphs.
Difference map readability for dynamic graphs
Graph Drawing
Computer Science