A generalized force-directed layout for multiplex sociograms

Abstract

Multiplex networks are defined by the presence of multiple edge types. As a consequence, it is hard to produce a single visualization of a network revealing both the structure of each edge type and their mutual relationships: Multiple visualization strategies are possible, depending on how each edge type should influence the position of the nodes in the sociogram. In this paper we introduce multiforce, a force-directed layout for multiplex networks where both intra-layer and inter-layer relationships among nodes are used to compute node coordinates. Despite its simplicity, our algorithm can reproduce the main existing approaches to draw multiplex sociograms, and also supports a new intermediate type of layout. Our experiments on real data show that multiforce enables layered visualizations where each layer represents an edge type, nodes are well aligned across layers and the internal layout of each layer highlights the structure of the corresponding edge type.