Radial Clustergrams: Visualizing the Aggregate Properties of Hierarchical Clusters

A new radial space-filling method for visualizing cluster hierarchies is presented. The method, referred to as a radial clustergram, arranges the clusters into a series of layers, each representing a different level of the tree. It uses adjacency of nodes instead of links to represent parent-child relationships and allocates sufficient screen real estate to each node to allow effective visualization of cluster properties through color-coding. Radial clustergrams combine the most appealing features of other cluster visualization techniques but avoid their pitfalls. Compared to classical dendrograms and hyperbolic trees, they make much more efficient use of space; compared to treemaps, they are more effective in conveying hierarchical structure and displaying properties of nodes higher in the tree. A fisheye lens is used to focus on areas of interest, without losing sight of the global context. The utility of the method is demonstrated using examples from the fields of molecular diversity and conformational analysis.