MetapathVis: Inspecting the Effect of Metapath in Heterogeneous Network Embedding via Visual Analytics

Abstract

In heterogeneous graphs (HGs), which offer richer network and semantic insights compared to homogeneous graphs, the Metapath technique serves as an essential tool for data mining. This technique facilitates the specification of sequences of entity connections, elucidating the semantic composite relationships between various node types for a range of downstream tasks. Nevertheless, selecting the most appropriate metapath from a pool of candidates and assessing its impact presents significant challenges. To address this issue, our study introduces MetapathVis, an interactive visual analytics system designed to assist machine learning (ML) practitioners in comprehensively understanding and comparing the effects of metapaths from multiple fine-grained perspectives. MetapathVis allows for an in-depth evaluation of various models generated with different metapaths, aligning HG network information at the individual level with model metrics. It also facilitates the tracking of aggregation processes associated with different metapaths. The effectiveness of our approach is validated through three case studies and a user study, with feedback from domain experts confirming that our system significantly aids ML practitioners in evaluating and comprehending the viability of different metapath designs.