OnSet
Visualizing Set Data
What is OnSet?
OnSet is a visualization technique that excels at visualizing large-scale binary set data.

To understand OnSet, let me walk you through an example.
The Data
Sets that are made up of the same underlying elements, eg. two proteins described through their amino acid compositions.
Present or Absent

Some elements might be present in one set while absent in the other.
Visual Presentation

Let's take all the elements in the list and present them as squares.
Hide Labels

We now remove the labels. The squares, thus, represent the elements in the set.
Position Squares

By positioning the square in a rectangular structure, we have a compact representation of a set.
Higher Cardinality?

The representation conveniently scales if the number of elements in the sets is larger.
The Representation of a Set

We now have a representation that visualizes a set through the elements that it contains and does not contain.
Intersection of Sets

By overlaying the two sets, we can view the elements that are present in both the sets.
Union of Sets

We can configure the representation to show the union of the sets. Opacity represents the frequency of occurence of the elements.
Resources
Video
Publication
OnSet: A Visualization Technique for Large-scale Binary Set Data
Ramik Sadana, Timothy Major, Alistair Dove and John Stasko
VIS’14, Paris, France, Nov. 2014