TreePlus: Interactive Exploration of Networks with Enhanced Tree Layouts

Despite extensive research, it is still difficult to produce effective interactive layouts for large graphs. Dense layout and occlusion make food Webs, ontologies and social networks difficult to understand and interact with. We propose a new interactive visual analytics component called TreePlus th...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 1414 - 1426
Main Authors:	Lee, B., Parr, C.S., Plaisant, C., Bederson, B.B., Veksler, V.D., Gray, W.D., Kotfila, C.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States IEEE 01-11-2006 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:	Algorithms Clusters Complement Computer Graphics Computer Simulation Data visualization Density evaluation/methodology Exploration Graph visualization Graphical user interfaces Graphs Information Storage and Retrieval - methods information visualization interaction techniques Interactive Models, Biological Navigation navigation techniques Networks Ontologies Pattern Recognition, Automated Piccolo Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) Toolkit Social network services Sociology Software Tree graphs User interfaces User-Computer Interface Visual analytics Visualization Watches
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Despite extensive research, it is still difficult to produce effective interactive layouts for large graphs. Dense layout and occlusion make food Webs, ontologies and social networks difficult to understand and interact with. We propose a new interactive visual analytics component called TreePlus that is based on a tree-style layout. TreePlus reveals the missing graph structure with visualization and interaction while maintaining good readability. To support exploration of the local structure of the graph and gathering of information from the extensive reading of labels, we use a guiding metaphor of "plant a seed and watch it grow." It allows users to start with a node and expand the graph as needed, which complements the classic overview techniques that can be effective at (but often limited to) revealing clusters. We describe our design goals, describe the interface and report on a controlled user study with 28 participants comparing TreePlus with a traditional graph interface for six tasks. In general, the advantage of TreePlus over the traditional interface increased as the density of the displayed data increased. Participants also reported higher levels of confidence in their answers with TreePlus and most of them preferred TreePlus
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:	1077-2626 1941-0506
DOI:	10.1109/TVCG.2006.106