2009-socialaction.html

---
layout: publication
year: 2009
pdf: https://perer.org/papers/adamPerer-SocialAction-CGA2009.pdf
title: "Integrating Statistics and Visualization for Exploratory Power: From Long-Term Case Studies to Design Guidelines"
authors:
  - Adam Perer
  - Ben Shneiderman
tags:
  - Social Network Analysis
  - Network Visualization
venue: IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications
venue_tags:
  - CG&A
type:
  - Journal
---

Although both statistical methods and visualizations have been used by network
analysts, exploratory data analysis remains a challenge. We propose that a tight
integration of these technologies in an interactive exploratory tool could
dramatically speed insight development. To test the power of this integrated
approach, we created a novel social network analysis tool, SocialAction, and
conducted four long-term case studies with domain experts, each working on
unique data sets with unique problems. The structured replicated case studies
show that the integrated approach in SocialAction led to significant discoveries
by a political analyst, a bibliometrician, a healthcare consultant, and a
counter-terrorism researcher. Our contributions demonstrate that the tight
integration of statistics and visualizations improves exploratory data analysis,
and that our evaluation methodology for long-term case studies captures the
research strategies of data analysts.