Exemplar-based Layout Fine-tuning for Node-link Diagrams

• Published in: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. 1655 - 1665
• Main Authors: Pan, Jiacheng, Chen, Wei, Zhao, Xiaodong, Zhou, Shuyue, Zeng, Wei, Zhu, Minfeng, Chen, Jian, Fu, Siwei, Wu, Yingcai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.02.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Design modifications; graph layout; graph visualization; Interactive systems; Layout; Layouts; Measurement; Merging; Node-link diagram; Nodes; Optimization; Software algorithms; Substructures; Topology; Two dimensional displays; user interactions; Weight reduction
• ISSN: 1077-2626; 1941-0506; 1941-0506
• DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2020.3030393

We design and evaluate a novel layout fine-tuning technique for node-link diagrams that facilitates exemplar-based adjustment of a group of substructures in batching mode. The key idea is to transfer user modifications on a local substructure to other substructures in the entire graph that are topologically similar to the exemplar. We first precompute a canonical representation for each substructure with node embedding techniques and then use it for on-the-fly substructure retrieval. We design and develop a light-weight interactive system to enable intuitive adjustment, modification transfer, and visual graph exploration. We also report some results of quantitative comparisons, three case studies, and a within-participant user study.