Visualizing explicit and implicit relations of complex information spaces

• Authors: Marian Dörk;Sheelagh Carpendale;Carey Williamson
• Venue: Information Visualization - Special issue on Visualization and Data Analysis 2011
• Year: 2012

In this work, we describe how EdgeMaps provide a new method for integrating the visualization of explicit and implicit data relations. Explicit relations are specific connections between entities already present in a given data set, while implicit relations are derived from multidimensional data based on similarity measures. Many data sets include both types of relations, which are often difficult to represent together in information visualizations. Node-link diagrams typically focus on explicit data connections while not incorporating implicit similarities between entities. Multidimensional scaling considers similarities between items; however, explicit links between nodes are not displayed. In contrast, EdgeMaps visualize both explicit and implicit relations by combining graph drawing and spatiatization techniques. We have applied this technique to three case studies [philosophers, painters, and musicians] and explored how integrated visualizations of explicit and implicit relations reveal novel patterns and relationships.