Networks are widely used to model and represent diverse data across various fields, including engineering, life sciences, and social sciences. While significant advancements have been made in the algorithmic aspects of network visualization, a gap remains in integrating perceptual principles with these algorithms to drive more effective visualization designs. Insights from previous research underscore the need for actionable guidelines rooted in human perception to bridge this gap.

This Dagstuhl Seminar will facilitate the investigation of key topics to reinforce the increased research interest towards that goal. To this end, we aim to bring together researchers focused on the graph-theoretical and algorithmic aspects of network visualization, practitioners developing visualization systems, and human visual perception experts. As a result of the exchange, we envision an expansion upon traditional quality metrics, enhanced layout methods, and refined evaluation and validation approaches through perception-based studies.

We will examine a diverse range of visual representations, including alternatives to node-link diagrams, to broaden the design toolkit for network visualization. Furthermore, we will investigate the applicability of new metrics in interactive network visualizations, including AR and VR environments.

Our goal is to foster cross-disciplinary insights, cultivate collaborations between the network, visualization, and human perception communities, and to develop practical guidelines that better support human perception and interaction in network visualizations across diverse applications. The outcomes of the seminar were designed to further establish fundamental research on perception for network analysis, foster the collection of experimental evidence, and facilitate incorporation of perception aspects in measures and methods for practical network visualization.

Topics to be discussed during the seminar include, but are not limited to the following:

• Actionable guidelines informed by perceptual principles
• Evaluation and validation of visualization techniques
• Layout methods that take into account perceptual aspects
• Alternative visual network representations
• User interaction with networks
• Dynamic networks
• Networks in immersive environments

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Cindy Xiong Bearfield, Karsten Klein, Stephen Kobourov, and Stefan Uddenberg