Designing semantic substrates for visual network exploration

A semantic substrate is a spatial template for a network, where nodes are grouped into regions and laid out within each region according to one or more node attributes. This paper shows how users can be given control in designing their own substrates and how this ability leads to a different approach to network data exploration. Users can create a semantic substrate, enter their data, get feedback from domain experts, edit the semantic substrate, and iteratively continue this procedure until the domain experts are satisfied with the insights they have gained. We illustrate this process in two case studies with domain experts working with legal precedents and food webs. Guidelines for designing substrates are provided, including how to locate, size, and align regions in a substrate, which attributes to choose for grouping nodes into regions, how to select placement methods and which attributes to set as parameters of the selected placement method. Throughout the paper, examples are ill...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: IVS
• Authors: Aleks Aris, Ben Shneiderman
• Keywords: Domain Experts, IVS 2007, Placement Method, Semantic Substrate