An interactive visualization interface for studying egocentric, categorical, contact diary datasets

Abstract

Contact diaries are interpersonal communication logs which are obtained in sociological and epidemiological studies. These logs can be used to study the social patterns of communities over a period of time. A dataset composed of diaries maps well to a set of one-tiered, categorical, independent and egocentric networks. This paper presents an interface for visualization and analysis of contact diaries datasets using an interactive radial mapping scheme, with case studies illustrating a standard workflow using the application. We facilitate individual diary analysis, multi-dataset comparison, and an overlay interface for investigating a set of many diaries in a singular space. With this interface, network researchers can utilize visualization to enhance their analysis of contact diaries.