We investigate reading strategies for node-link diagrams that wrap around the boundaries in a flattened torus topology by examining eye tracking data recorded in a previous controlled study. Prior work showed that torus drawing affords greater flexibility in clutter reduction than traditional node-link representations, but impedes link-and-path exploration tasks, while repeating tiles around boundaries aids comprehension. However, it remains unclear what strategies users apply in different wrapping settings. This is important for design implications for future work on more effective wrapped visualizations for network applications, and cyclic data that could benefit from wrapping. We perform visual-exploratory data analysis of gaze data, and conduct statistical tests derived from the patterns identified. Results show distinguishable gaze behaviors, with more visual glances and transitions between areas of interest in the non-replicated layout. Full-context has more successful visual searches than partial-context, but the gaze allocation indicates that the layout could be more space-efficient.

翻译：我们通过分析先前控制实验中记录的眼动追踪数据，研究在扁平环面拓扑中围绕边界折回的节点-连线图阅读策略。先前研究表明，相较于传统节点-连线表示法，环面绘图在减少视觉杂乱方面更具灵活性，但会阻碍链接与路径探索任务，而重复平铺边界区域有助于用户理解。然而，用户在不同折回设置下采用何种策略仍不明确。这对未来网络应用和可从折回中受益的循环数据设计更高效的可视化方案具有重要启示。我们对注视数据进行视觉探索性分析，并根据识别出的模式开展统计检验。结果表明，非复制布局中注视行为具有显著差异，兴趣区间存在更多视觉扫视与切换。全上下文视图相比部分上下文视图具有更成功的视觉搜索表现，但注视分配表明该布局的空间效率仍有提升空间。