Graph Exploration by Multiple Linked Metric Views

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A node-link diagram with attached metrics

The visualization of relational data by node-link diagrams quickly leads to a degradation of performance at some exploration tasks when the diagrams show visual clutter and overdraw. To address this challenge of large-data graph visualization, we introduce Graph Metric Views, a technique that enriches the visualization of traditional layout strategies for node-link diagrams by additionally allowing an analyst to interactively explore graph-specific metrics such as number of nodes, number of link crossings, link coverage, or degree of orthogonality. To this end, we support an analyst with additional histogram-like representations at the axes of the display space for graph-specific metrics. In this way, a cluttered and densely packed node-link diagram becomes more explorable even for dense graph regions: The user can use the distribution of metric values as an overview and then select regions of interest for further investigation and filtering.