Network Visualization
CHAPTER 4
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Why Visualization?
Humans are wired to find patterns visually.
We have natural abilities to see anomalies, patterns, clusters, and changes.
we can recognize many of these things without consciously looking for them.
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Why Visualization?
1. Information visualization deals with the presentation of data in visual format. The data
may be numeric, categorical, network data (like social networks), text, and other types.
2. Good information visualization supports users in better understanding the data they are
seeing .
3. The goal of information visualization is to take advantage of humans’ natural abilities to
see patterns, anomalies, relationships, and features in visual data.
4. Visualizations are a qualitative way to begin understanding data. From there, quantitative
experiments or analysis can follow to explain any insights.
5. Graph visualizations apply all these lessons to looking at the structure of networks.
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Types of network visualizations
Graph layout : Every network is made up of nodes and edges.
Researchers have presented some general guidelines that make network visualizations easier to work
with:
1) Every node is visible.
2) For every node you can count its degree.
3) For every link you can follow it from source to destination.
4) Clusters and outliers are identifiable.
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network layout algorithms
This section presents a few of the most common network layout algorithms.
Note that many of these algorithms have some random features in them.
They start with the nodes randomly placed and iteratively move them around into better positions.
As a result, running the algorithm multiple times will produce graphs that look different. They will
often be similar but may be positioned differently.
Also, each iteration helps to improve the layout.
Eventually, the iterations make small or no changes. Some applications automatically run the
algorithms for a fixed number of rounds, but other times the user can specify a number.
We are not concerned about the absolute position in x and y axis.
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Types of Network Layout
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Random layout
Often, when loading data into a visualization tool, the nodes are placed randomly.
This is called a random layout, and it often does not provide much insight into the structure of
the network.
Figure 4.4 shows the same network from Figure 4.3 presented in a random layout.
We may be able to tell that node a has a high degree in this network, but the clusters and other
patters are not at all clear from the random layout.
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Circular layout
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Circular Layout…
Circular layouts place all the nodes in a circle and then add edges between them.
Some circular layouts place nodes closer to one another when they are more closely connected.
In Figure 4.5, the cluster of nodes labeled a1 through a10 is clearer because of the density of edges
in that section of the graph.
The chain of nodes from b through b4 is also present, though the edges around the circle are a bit
harder to pick up visually than in the Figure 4.3 layout.
. A circular layout places nodes in structured positions and then adds edges between connected
pairs.
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Grid layout
Note that the degree of node a is
clearly high, the cluster of nodes
a1 through a10 is obvious, and the
chain of nodes b through b4 is
clear across the top.
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Force-directed layout
1. Most graphs are not laid out randomly or in one of these formats with a predetermined structure.
2. Instead, the layout is dynamic and determined by the connections between the nodes.
3. Those nodes that are more closely connected are laid out close to one another, and those that are distant
are shown further apart.
4. This type of layout is generally called force directed. Nodes and edges are treated as a physical system,
and a Simulation of that system is applied to determine a final layout.
5. For example, nodes may be treated as objects, and edges may be treated as springs that apply equal force.
The nodes are randomly laid out, connected by springs for edges, and then a simulation of how the springs
would physically behave determines the final Position of nodes and edges.
6. A cluster of nodes with many connections will be close together, because pulling any node away pulls on
many springs that want to keep it close.
7. Figure 4.3 uses an algorithm that does this simulation.
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Yifan Hu layout
Many algorithms lay out graphs in this matter.
Figure 4.3 uses one called Yifan Hu. Figure 4.7 uses a variant called Force Atlas. While there are differences
between Figures 4.3 and 4.7, the similarities in clustering and separate nodes are clear.
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Harel-Koren fast multiscale layout
a. The Harel-Koren fast multiscale algorithm (Harel and Koren, 2000), available in NodeXL, is
designed to quickly lay out large, complex graphs.
b. It is based on force-directed layout algorithms but uses optimizations in the underlying code to
make the algorithm computationally efficient.
c. For large graphs with thousands of nodes, generating a layout with many force-directed algorithms
can take a very long time.
d. With Harel-Koren, it often can be achieved in a few seconds, making it an ideal choice for large
networks .
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Other layouts
Most graphs will be presented using a force-directed layout algorithm.
However, there are some more sophisticated layouts designed to convey additional information
through layout.
Figure 4.9 shows a layout available in the graphing program NodeXL. Here, nodes are clustered,
grouped into boxes, and then links are added within and between boxes.
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Visualizing network features
The layout algorithms dictate the placement of nodes and edges.
Other network features, like edge weights, node properties, labels, and clusters, can
also be visualized.
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Labels
Labels are some of the more difficult attributes to show in a network, both on nodes and on edges.
Figure 4.10 shows a network with only 92 nodes, which is still relatively small.
The nodes represent YouTube videos, and the edges indicate that they were tagged with at least one
similar term.
The node labels are the YouTube identifiers for each video. Even in this small graph, the image becomes
very cluttered with all the labels shown.
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Labels..
1. Similar problems happen with edge labels.
2. Whether shown on top of the edge with straight alignment or angled along the edge, the
graph tends to become cluttered and difficult to read.
3. Some techniques can improve on this a bit, either by putting boxes around the text, by
only showing a few labels of interest, or by relying on interactive interfaces that only show
labels on demand. The latter allow the user to move the mouse over a node or edge and see
the label or other data on demand.
4. That facilitates exploration of the graph without the clutter. Still, there are no solutions to
totally eliminate this problem when producing fixed visualization images, so often labels are
left off.
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Size, shape, and color
Categorical or quantitative attributes are particularly easy to show by adjustments in size, shape,or color.
Figure 4.11 shows color encoding of node degree.
Darker colors indicate nodes with higher degrees, and node a is the darkest. For clarity, the node labels have
been left off this graph.
Node color could also be used to indicate other attributes of a node. For example, node color could indicate
if each person is a friend, family member, classmate, co-worker.
Keeping color as an indicator of degree, node size can be used to indicate other attributes.
Edges can also be treated with color or thickness to indicate their attributes.
For example, different types of relationships could each be coded in a different color. Edge weights are also
commonly visualized.
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Larger graph properties
Larger graph properties can also be encoded in visualizations.
Figure 4.13 shows a new graph that has two main clusters.
This graph is a network of YouTube videos, where nodes represent videos and edges connected videos
that share a common tag. All of these videos were tagged with the word “cubs”; Even without the color
coding, the two groups would be relatively easy to see. But using a community detection algorithm that
groups nodes into clusters, and then color coding by those clusters, makes it even more apparent.
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Scale issues
Visualization is very useful for analysing networks of this size or smaller. When networks become much
larger, the quality of the visualization diminishes.
Figure 4.15 shows a network from a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
Nodes represent hosts (computers participating in the network), and edges represent connections
between them.
There are close to 11,000 nodes in this network with roughly 40,000 edges. Even with a very low
density(,0.001), there are still too many nodes and edges to see much of anything.
Depending on the structure of the network, it is sometime possible to get useful visualizations with up to
around 10,000 nodes; however, networks under1,000 nodes are typically safest.
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Density
Density can also be a problem for visualization, even if the number of nodes is small.
Figure 4.16 shows a network of members of the U.S. Senate.
There are only 100 nodes but over 4,100 edges.
The edges indicate that the senators have voted the same way in at least one bill.
As this network shows, there are no interesting patterns visible with the threshold of
40%; the network is simply too dense.
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Filtering for visual patterns
1. It is often difficult to see any patterns in very dense networks.
2. One way to compensate for this is to filter the networks when possible.
3. For example, if we take the same network from Figure 4.13 and filter the edges so that
they only connect senators who have voted the same way on at least two-thirds of the
bills, the pattern changes dramatically, which is shown in Figure 4.17.
4. In this figure, two clear clusters emerge, representing the two major political parties.
5. Furthermore, five senators are pulled out from the major party clusters along the center,
indicating that they frequently vote with members of both parties.
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Graph simplification
An active area of research in network visualization is graph simplification.
Because large networks are very common when working with social media, problems of scale
are common.
Graph simplification techniques include,
a. grouping clusters of nodes into a single node and representing the edges between
clusters as a single edge,
b. representing structural patterns as representative shapes,
c. showing only part of the graph at a time.
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Graph simplification …
Figure 4.18 shows a tree-structured network visualized with a tool called Space Tree.
The nodes and edges to the right of the first level are hidden but are summarized with triangles.
The size, color, and angle of the triangles indicate the depth, number of nodes, and width of the
summarized structure.
Figure4.19 shows a technique called motif simplification applied to a network built from the Lostpedia
website.
The graph on the left is summarized in the graph on the right with arcs to represent nodes that have
many singleton neighbors (called fans).
Many methods are available for simplifying graphs, and these may make it possible to find patterns in
larger dense networks when traditional visualization methods would fail.
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Exercise -3
Using the Les Miserables dataset dataset above, try at least three different
network layout algorithms to visualize the graph.
Show all three visualizations, describe each, and explain which visualization
you think is better and why.
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