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Refinery: Visual Exploration of Large, Heterogeneous Networks through Associative Browsing

Sanjay Kairam, Nathalie Henry Riche, Steven Drucker, Roland Fernandez, Jeffrey Heer. Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. EuroVis), 2015
Figure for Refinery: Visual Exploration of Large, Heterogeneous Networks through Associative Browsing
Refinery allows exploration of large, heterogeneous networks by visualizing subgraphs of items relevant to user queries. Here, querying for a paper in a publication network has led this user to a conference session of possible interest.
Materials
Abstract
Browsing is a fundamental aspect of exploratory information-seeking. Associative browsing represents a common and intuitive set of exploratory strategies in which users step iteratively from familiar to novel bits of information. In this paper, we examine associative browsing as a strategy for bottom-up exploration of large, heterogeneous networks. We present Refinery, an interactive visualization system informed by guidelines for associative brows- ing drawn from literature on exploratory information-seeking. These guidelines motivate Refinery’s query model, which allows users to simply and expressively construct queries using heterogeneous sets of nodes. This system computes degree-of-interest scores for associated content using a fast, random-walk algorithm. Refinery visualizes query nodes within a subgraph of results, providing explanatory context, facilitating serendipitous discovery, and stimulating continued exploration. A study of 12 academic researchers using Refinery to browse publication data demonstrates how the system enables discovery of valuable new content, even within existing areas of expertise.
BibTeX
@article{2015-refinery,
  title = {Refinery: Visual Exploration of Large, Heterogeneous Networks through Associative Browsing},
  author = {Kairam, Sanjay AND Henry Riche, Nathalie AND Drucker, Steven AND Fernandez, Roland AND Heer, Jeffrey},
  journal = {Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. EuroVis)},
  year = {2015},
  volume = {34},
  number = {3},
  url = {https://idl.uw.edu/papers/refinery},
  doi = {10.1111/cgf.12642}
}