I work as a Research Fellow at
Monash University in Melbourne,
Australia.
I am a member of the
Adaptive Diagrams and Documents Group, which is in turn part of the
Center
for Research into Intelligent Systems (CRIS).
My research interests include
geometric layout constraints,
software usability,
graphical user interfaces,
text and diagram layout,
connector routing, and
information visualisation.
I am the primary author of the
constraint-based diagram editor Dunnart, and the
maintainer of the
Adaptagrams constraint-based
layout libraries.
Research interests
Unfortunately, placement and layout tools in most existing diagram editors
have only a one-off effect. Diagram authors are forced to use these tools
repeatedly to manually maintain placement and layout relationships to suit
the desired drawing style. These relationships (or constraints) might be
things like an alignment or distribution relationship or connectors between
objects, each of which need to be maintained as the user modifies and
interacts with the diagram. Using constraint-solving techniques it is now
possible to provide tools for automatically maintaining such geometric
constraints during editing. My interest and research focus lies with the
usability of such tools and techniques within interactive diagram editors.
I'm interested in the metaphor that should be used to describe them to the
user, the interface they should be given, and the behaviour that these
tools should have during interaction.
Part of my research has been examining the usefulness of placement tools
(such as alignment or distribution) in existing diagram editors (once-off,
one-way constraints). I has evaluated the usability of these and compared
them with new versions based on multi-way constraints, written to address
some of the usability issues found with existing tools.
I have looked techniques for doing fast incremental object-avoiding
connector routing for use in interactive editors. We do this by dynamically
maintaining a visibility graph and using using a penalty function to
generate routes that with desired aesthetic properties.
My current research involves integrating constraint-based graph layout
with interactive diagram editors. We have designed a continuous network
layout model where the diagram editor constantly improves the layout while
it is being edited. It maintains constraints placed on the layout by the
user, and preserves the topology of the layout—preventing shapes from
crossing other shapes or connectors. The user is able to manually alter
the topology by holding down the ALT key, to pause the automatic
layout.
All of my research is implented in Dunnart, a prototype constraint-based
diagram editor. Dunnart was written as a testbed for both prototyping new
tools and well as conducting usability testing and benchmarking.
Other interests
I am also a member of the Casual Robotics
Group. We build and program LEGO robots in our spare time, and we are
currently looking at acquiring and working with a swarm of small autonomous
robots.
Publications
Software:
- Dunnart
Prototype constraint-based diagram
editor.
- Adaptagrams
C++
libraries for constraint-based network layout and connector routing.
- Pro-origami
System for automatic generation of protein structure cartoons.
Journal Articles:
-
Alex Stivala, Michael Wybrow, Anthony Wirth, James C. Whisstock and Peter
J. Stuckey.
Automatic generation of protein structure cartoons with Pro-origami.
In Bioinformatics 27(23): 3315–3316, Oxford University
Press, 2011.
DOI
-
Falk Schreiber, Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow.
A generic algorithm for layout of biological networks.
In BMC Bioinformatics 10(1): 375, BioMed Central, 2009.
DOI
- Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, Falk Schreiber, Peter J. Stuckey,
Michael Woodward, and Michael Wybrow.
Exploration of networks using overview+detail with constraint-based
cooperative layout.
In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and
Computer Graphics 14(6): 1293–1300, IEEE, 2008.
DOI
[PDF]
- Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, Linda McIver, and Peter J. Stuckey.
Comparing Usability of One-Way and Multi-Way Constraints for Diagram
Editing.
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
14(4): 19:1–38, ACM Press, 2008.
DOI
[PDF]
Refereed Conference Papers:
-
Christian Bachmaier, Franz J. Brandenburg, Philip Effinger, Carsten
Gutwenger, Jyrki Katajainen, Karsten Klein, Miro Spönemann, Matthias
Stegmeier, and Michael Wybrow.
The Open Graph Archive: A Community-Driven Effort.
In Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'11), LNCS 7034, pages 435–440. Springer-Verlag, 2012.
DOI
- Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott and Peter J. Stuckey
Orthogonal connector routing
In Proceedings of 17th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'09), LNCS 5849, pages 219–231. Springer-Verlag, 2010.
DOI
[PDF]
- Mario Albrecht, Andreas Kerren, Karsten Klein, Oliver Kohlbacher,
Petra Mutzel, Wolfgang Paul, Falk Schreiber and Michael Wybrow
On open problems in biological network visualization
In Proceedings of 17th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'09), LNCS 5849, pages 256–267. Springer-Verlag, 2010.
DOI
- Cameron Braganza, Kim Marriott, Peter Moulder, Michael Wybrow
and Tim Dwyer.
Scrolling behaviour with single- and multi-column layout.
In WWW '09: Proceedings of the 18th international conference on
World Wide Web, pages 831–840. ACM Press, 2009.
DOI
[PDF]
- Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
Topology preserving constrained graph layout.
In Proceedings of 16th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'08), LNCS 5417, pages 230–241. Springer-Verlag, 2009.
DOI
[PDF]
- Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
Dunnart: A constraint-based network diagram authoring tool.
In Proceedings of 16th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'08), LNCS 5417, pages 420–431. Springer-Verlag, 2009.
DOI
[PDF]
- Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
Integrating Edge Routing into Force-Directed Layout.
In Proceedings of 14th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
(GD'06), LNCS 4372, pages 8–19. Springer-Verlag, 2007.
DOI
[PDF]
- Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, and Peter J. Stuckey.
Incremental Connector Routing.
In Proceedings of 13th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'05),
LNCS 3843, pages 446–457. Springer-Verlag, 2006.
DOI
[PDF]
-
Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, Linda McIver, and Peter J. Stuckey.
The usefulness of constraints for diagram editing.
In Stephen Viller and Peta Wyeth, editors, OZCHI Proceedings,
pages 192–201, Information Environments Program,
University of Queensland, 2003.
[PDF]
Dissertations:
- Michael Wybrow. Using semi-automatic layout to improve the usability
of diagramming software. PhD thesis, Monash University, 2008.
[PDF]
Contact details
Dr. Michael Wybrow
Clayton School of Information
Technology
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia
Office: Room 133A, Building 63, Clayton Campus
Phone: +61 3 9905 2479
Email: