Systems and methods of arranging displayed elements in data visualizations that use relationships

A computer, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• memory;
• and
• one or more programs stored in the memory configured for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:
• retrieving a set of tuples from a database according to user selection, wherein each tuple comprises a same set of fields;
• identifying a relation between tuples, wherein the relation comprises a non-empty set of ordered pairs of tuples from the set of tuples;
• receiving user selection of the relation to specify a dimensional position of visual marks corresponding to the tuples, wherein the dimensional position is selected from the group consisting of x-position and y-position;
• in response to receiving the user selection, performing a network traversal of the tuples using the relation to order respective dimensional positions of the visual marks corresponding to the tuples;
• and
• generating and displaying a data visualization with each tuple represented by a visible mark based on the respective dimensional positions of the visual marks.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured for execution by a computer having one or more processors and memory, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

• retrieving a set of tuples from a database according to user selection, wherein each tuple comprises a same set of fields;
• identifying a relation between tuples, wherein the relation comprises a non-empty set of ordered pairs of tuples from the set of tuples;
• receiving user selection of the relation to specify a dimensional position of visual marks corresponding to the tuples, wherein the dimensional position is selected from the group consisting of x-position and y-position;
• in response to receiving the user selection, performing a network traversal of the tuples using the relation to order respective dimensional positions of the visual marks corresponding to the tuples;
• and
• generating and displaying a data visualization with each tuple represented by a visible mark based on the respective dimensional positions of the visual marks.