About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Publication
CHI EA 2015
Conference paper
VoroGraph: Visualization tools for epidemic analysis
Abstract
Epidemiologists struggle to integrate complex information about the incidence and spread of disease, in relation to population density and other demographic conditions, at geographical scales ranging from global air travel down to local commuting. A partial solution overlays air travel as arcs above color-coded maps. However, commuting is not shown and it is often challenging to understand changing relationships due to the visual complexity arcs introduce. Moreover, when region sizes and shapes vary their color-codings become difficult to perceive. We introduce three visualizations which combine representations of population, movement, and disease spread at a local scale that is consistent with a zoomable global scale: (1) a map with commuting border encodings, (2) a centroidal Voronoi tessellation morphing technique, and (3) a meta-layout showing commuting alongside air travel. Our work provides mid-level abstractions that expert epidemiologists can use for insights into contagion. Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).