A wide variety of software applications provide some kind of automatic graphical layout. Such applications include graph layout and other information visualisation tools, word processors, document browsers, CAD and diagram authoring tools. These applications vary in the underlying visual notation, e.g. text or network diagrams, and the degree of human control over the layout. Each of these application areas has largely been treated in isolation as a separate research field. The aim of this one day workshop is to bring researchers from these different areas together and to identify common themes, techniques and issues.
A premise of the workshop is that constrained optimization provides a unifying framework for understanding automatic graphical layout. Intuitively, constraints can be used to model structural aspects of the notation while the objective function models aesthetic criteria. We believe that understanding layout in this way allows a more flexible viewpoint giving a unified approach to these seemingly disparate layout problems. It encourages separation of problem definition from the algorithms used and the use of generic optimization techniques whenever they are applicable.
The purpose of this workshop is to explore the usefulness of this unified constraint optimization approach and hopefully reach a consensus so that practitioners from various fields can share expertise about layout.
Researchers and practitioners interested in analysing the complexity of layout problems, developing layout algorithms, building applications that utilise automatic layout, or investigating user interface issues are invited to attend the workshop. It may also be of interest to experts in the field of operations research looking for new applications of constraint optimization. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Enquiries: cbldd07@bowman.infotech.monash.edu.au