Interpretable visualizations of data spaces for classification problems

Abstract How do classification models ‘see’ our data? Based on their success in delineating behaviors, there must be some lens through which it is easy to see the boundary between classes; however, our current set of visualization techniques makes this prospect difficult. In this work, we propose a hybrid supervised-unsupervised technique distinctly suited to visualizing the decision boundaries determined by classification problems. This method provides a human-interpretable map that can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, which we demonstrate through several established examples from literature. While we discuss this method in the context of chemistry-driven problems, its application can be generalized across subfields for ‘unboxing’ the operations of machine-learning classification models.

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Publication Details

Journal
Machine Learning Science and Technology
Published
2026-02-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/ae466e
Primary Topic
Data Visualization and Analytics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Interpretable visualizations of data spaces for classification problems

Rose K. Cersonsky, Arthur Y Lin, Christian Alexander Jorgensen, Rhushil Vasavada
Machine Learning Science and Technology
Data Visualization and Analytics
article

Interpretable visualizations of data spaces for classification problems

Rose K. Cersonsky, Arthur Y Lin, Christian Alexander Jorgensen, Rhushil Vasavada
article en

Abstract

Abstract How do classification models ‘see’ our data? Based on their success in delineating behaviors, there must be some lens through which it is easy to see the boundary between classes; however, our current set of visualization techniques makes this prospect difficult. In this work, we propose a hybrid supervised-unsupervised technique distinctly suited to visualizing the decision boundaries determined by classification problems. This method provides a human-interpretable map that can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, which we demonstrate through several established examples from literature. While we discuss this method in the context of chemistry-driven problems, its application can be generalized across subfields for ‘unboxing’ the operations of machine-learning classification models.

Machine Learning Science and TechnologyVol. 7(2)
University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), Madison Group (United States) (US)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 55%
Data Visualization and Analytics
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