NetVisia: Heat map & matrix visualization of dynamic social network statistics & content

Robert Gove, Nick Gramsky, Rose Kirby, Emre Sefer, Awalin Sopan, Cody Dunne, Ben Shneiderman, Meirav Taieb-Maimon

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Visualizations of static networks in the form of node-link diagrams have evolved rapidly, though researchers are still grappling with how best to show evolution of nodes over time in these diagrams. This paper introduces NetVisia, a social network visualization system designed to support users in exploring temporal evolution in networks by using heat maps to display node attribute changes over time. NetVisia's novel contributions to network visualizations are to (1) cluster nodes in the heat map by similar metric values instead of by topological similarity, and (2) align nodes in the heat map by events. We compare NetVisia to existing systems and describe a formative user evaluation of a NetVisia prototype with four participants that emphasized the need for tooltips and coordinated views. Despite the presence of some usability issues, in 30-40 minutes the user evaluation participants discovered new insights about the data set which had not been discovered using other systems. We discuss implemented improvements to NetVisia, and analyze a co-occurrence network of 228 business intelligence concepts and entities. This analysis confirms the utility of a clustered heat map to discover outlier nodes and time periods.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, PASSAT/SocialCom 2011
Pages19-26
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2011
Event2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust, PASSAT 2011 and 2011 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2011 - Boston, MA, United States
Duration: 9 Oct 201111 Oct 2011

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, PASSAT/SocialCom 2011

Conference

Conference2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust, PASSAT 2011 and 2011 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2011
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston, MA
Period9/10/1111/10/11

Keywords

  • Dynamic networks
  • Information visualization
  • Network evolution
  • Network visualization
  • Social networks
  • User interfaces

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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