Design and evaluation of euler diagram and treemap for social network visualisation

Abstract

At present, the complexity and scale of modern social networks is at its highest level but there is a gap in how to represent these networks and their relationships to a user. As a result, it is often hard for a user to understand the relationships in the social networks and make an informed decision over it. Network diagrams has become a standard for social networks visualisation and analysis. However, in this paper, two alternative visualisation types for social network representation and analysis were considered. An Euler diagram and treemap were evaluated for visualising social networks and conveying information on people in a network, their relationships and common interests. Then two new visualisations for social network representation based on these two types of visualisation were proposed. An Euler diagram augmented by a network diagram and a treemap combined with a network diagram were designed and then compared in an evaluation. The visualisations were evaluated by twenty participants for appropriateness and usefulness of the two visualisations in comparison to each other. Finally, the results of the evaluation, limitations and usefulness of the proposed diagrams were discussed.