Layout of the sankey diagram

[wangqianwen0418]

center aligned

before:

now:

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grouping sequence can effectively reduce the visual clutter in the sankey diagram

divided into two groups:

Data: Low-Grade Gliomas (UCSF, Science 2014) TRIPLED, number of states: 7

[wangqianwen0418]

Edge crossing:

Q: Can we minimize edge crossing through reordering? A: Yes, especially when the sequence are properly grouped.

Below is an example:

after grouping:

after reordering:

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Q: Do we need to reorder the state at each timepoints to reduce the edge crossing? A: Not sure, maybe not. First, after grouping sequence, the visual clutter is reduced. Second, we order states in the same order at each timepoints. The edge crossing can help highlight the state transition among timepoints. Below is an example:

Example Data: Expanded data at time points 3 & 4

[wangqianwen0418]

💬 Feedback from the group discussion (11.19):

• reordering states still makes sense after sequence grouping.

  • the color of rectangles can reveal the transition between states, edge crossing is not necessary
  • it is also much easier to achieve good results in minimising edge crossing after the sequence grouping
  • in case the reordering result is not good, users should be allowed to reverse the reordering

• sequence grouping makes more sense in V2 (a rectangle is a state) than V1 (a rectangle is certain attribute value):

  • states tend to have a clearer temporal distribution patterns