Storytelling With Networks: Realizing the Explanatory Potential of Network Diagrams Through the Integration of Qualitative Data

Abstract

Network visualizations are alluring yet deceptively difficult to interpret. This article demonstrates several strategies for integrating qualitative data into interactive network diagrams for the purposes of providing contextual information about actors and their relationships. The result is a new joint display called a Narrated Network Diagram (NND). The development of NNDs aims to make network visualizations more reliable tools for reporting research findings, especially for researchers integrating Social Network Analysis tools into multi- and mixed-methods research designs. Until now, researchers primarily use interactivity to support exploratory analysis of large networks at various scales. However, interactivity can also be used to integrate diverse forms of data without sacrificing perceptual efficiency by essentially hiding significant amounts of text within nodes and edges as tooltips or by delineating additional data within legends, titles, and subtitles.