Visualizing Ontologies: Challenges and Proposed Solution

In this article we highlight the main challenges in ontology visualization and propose a solution. First we present most common ontology visualization challenges, discuss the functionalities that users usually miss in ontology representation tools and propose the solutions to these problems. We present an implementation that addresses detected challenges with three different graphical representations of ontologies, forming a multiple view. The visualizations follow well-established concepts from graphic design by which we achieved less clutter and simpler comprehension of ontologies' structures. Furthermore, the implemented system includes functionalities from which users will in our opinion benefit most (all-clickable elements enable easy exploration and in-depth research, filtering, reveal/hide hierarchy levels, advanced search, etc).