In this paper we address the problem of finding the best viewpoints for three-dimensional straight-line graph drawings. We define goodness in terms of preserving the relational structure of the graph, and develop two continuous measures of goodness under orthographic parallel projection. We develop Voronoi variants to find the best viewpoints under these measures, and present results on the complexity of these diagrams.

If judiciously applied, the techniques of animation can enhance the look and feel of computer applications that present a graphical human interface. Such techniques can smooth the rough edges and abrupt transitions common in many current graphical interfaces and strengthen the illusion of direct manipulation that many interfaces strive to present. To date, few applications include such animation techniques. One possible reason for this is that animated interfaces are difficult to implement: they are difficult to design, they place great burdens on programmers, and they demand high performance from underlying graphics systems. This dissertation demonstrates that direct manipulation human computer interfaces augmented with techniques borrowed from cartoon animators are both simple to program and effective to use. My approach is to add support for animation techniques such as object distortion and keyframe interpolation at the lowest levels of a graphical interface toolkit, and to provid...