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Freire, M., Plaisant, C., Shneiderman, B., Golbeck, J. (September 2009)
ManyNets: An Interface for
Multiple Network Analysis and Visualization
HCIL-2009-30
Traditional network analysis tools support analysts in studying
a single network. ManyNets offers these analysts a powerful
new approach that enables them to work on multiple
networks simultaneously. Several thousand networks can
be presented as rows in a tabular visualization, and then inspected,
sorted and filtered according to their attributes. The
networks to be displayed can be obtained by subdivision
of larger networks. Examples of meaningful subdivisions
used by analysts include ego networks, community extraction,
and time-based slices. Cell visualizations and interactive
column overviews allow analysts to assess the distribution
of attributes within particular sets of networks. Details,
such as traditional node-link diagrams, are available on demand.
We describe a case study analyzing a social network
geared towards film recommendations by means of decomposition.
A small usability study provides feedback on the
use of the interface on a set of tasks issued from the case
study.
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