Drawing Area-Proportional Venn-3 Diagrams with Convex Polygons

Abstract. Area-proportional Venn diagrams are a popular way of visualizing the relationships between data sets, where the set intersections have a specified numerical value. In these diagrams, the areas of the regions are in proportion to the given values. Venn-3, the Venn diagram consisting of three intersecting curves, has been used in many applications, including marketing, ecology and medicine. Whilst circles are widely used to draw such diagrams, most area specifications cannot be drawn in this way and, so, should only be used where an approximate solution is acceptable. However, placing different restrictions on the shape of curves may result in usable diagrams that have an exact solution, that is, where the areas of the regions are exactly in proportion to the represented data. In this paper, we explore the use of convex shapes for drawing exact area proportional Venn-3 diagrams. Convex curves reduce the visual complexity of the diagram and, as most desirable shapes (such as ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: DIAGRAMS
• Authors: Peter Rodgers, Jean Flower, Gem Stapleton, John Howse
• Keywords: Area Specifications, Area-proportional Venn Diagrams, Artificial Intelligence, DIAGRAMS 2010, Venn Diagram