Graph Exploration with Embedding-Guided Layouts

TL;DR

This paper introduces GEGraph, a flexible embedding-guided graph layout method that combines graph topology and node attributes for improved visualization, exploration, and community preservation.

Contribution

It presents a novel embedding-based pipeline and layout algorithm that effectively integrates aesthetic and exploration goals in graph visualization.

Findings

GEGraph achieves better community preservation in layouts.

The method supports flexible graph exploration with Focus+Context interactions.

Quantitative and qualitative evaluations validate the approach.

Abstract

Node-link diagrams are widely used to visualize graphs. Most graph layout algorithms only use graph topology for aesthetic goals (e.g., minimize node occlusions and edge crossings) or use node attributes for exploration goals (e.g., preserve visible communities). Existing hybrid methods that bind the two perspectives still suffer from various generation restrictions (e.g., limited input types and required manual adjustments and prior knowledge of graphs) and the imbalance between aesthetic and exploration goals. In this paper, we propose a flexible embedding-based graph exploration pipeline to enjoy the best of both graph topology and node attributes. First, we leverage embedding algorithms for attributed graphs to encode the two perspectives into latent space. Then, we present an embedding-driven graph layout algorithm, GEGraph, which can achieve aesthetic layouts with better community preservation to support an easy interpretation of the graph structure. Next, graph explorations are extended based on the generated graph layout and insights extracted from the embedding vectors. Illustrated with examples, we build a layout-preserving aggregation method with Focus+Context interaction and a related nodes searching approach with multiple proximity strategies. Finally, we conduct quantitative and qualitative evaluations, a user study, and two case studies to validate our approach.