An evolutionary approach to support web-page design

Arranging pictures or photographs on a wall or a sheet of paper can be viewed as a layout problem that consists in placing a set of rectangles on a large rectangle so that there are no overlaps, and all edges are parallel to either the vertical or horizontal edge of the large rectangle. Automating this process is sensible in connection with web-page design, in particular if frequent changes occur. For web pages, it is possible and it makes sense to scale pictures down so as to ensure that there is a solution to any such layout problem. The goal then is to find a layout that arranges the pictures in a way that is pleasing to the eye. We propose to employ an evolutionary approach to evolve layouts, using a representation similar to slicing tree structures, and a fitness measure that incorporates the idea of aesthetic appeal as minimising blank spaces.