MatLink: Enhanced Matrix Visualization for Analyzing Social Networks

Abstract. Visualizing social networks presents challeges for both nodelink and adjacency matrix representations. Social networks are locally dense, which makes node-link displays unreadable. Yet, main analysis tasks require following paths, which is difficult on matrices. This article presents MatLink, a hybrid representation with links overlaid on the borders of a matrix and dynamic topological feedback as the pointer moves. We evaluated MatLink by an experiment comparing its readability, in term of errors and time, for social network-related tasks to the other conventional representations on graphs varying in size (small and medium) and density. It showed significant advantages for most tasks, especially path-related ones where standard matrices are weak. Key words: Node-Link Diagram, Matrix Visualization, Social Network. (a) Node-Link(NL) (b) Matrix(MAT) (c) MatLink (d) Zoom on MatLink Fig. 1: Three representations of a social network. 

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: INTERACT
• Authors: Nathalie Henry, Jean-Daniel Fekete
• Keywords: Adjacency Matrix Representations, Human Computer Interaction, INTERACT 2007, Social Network, Social Network-related Tasks