OWL (Other Ways of Looking)

OWL is a configurable chart slot in the Analytics sidebar. Choose which visualization appears by selecting a chart type in Graph Settings > OWL.

Available Chart Types

Venn Diagrams

Analyze overlapping relationships between groups.

• Circle size: Proportional to number of nodes in each group
• Overlapping areas: Nodes that interact across groups
• Statistics: Counts and percentages for each intersection
• Works best with 2–4 categories

Heatmap

Department-to-department communication density matrix.

• Color-scaled cells: Yellow to red gradient showing communication volume
• Hover tooltips: Shows exact count for each department pair
• Responsive sizing: Adapts cell size to number of departments
• Export: JPG image or interactive HTML with hover tooltips
• Requires a department/category column

Radar

Multi-axis comparison of network metrics across departments. Each department is drawn as a colored polygon on a spider chart, making it easy to spot which teams are well-connected, siloed, or acting as bridges.

Metrics Explained

Metric	What It Measures	Why It Matters
Degree	Average number of unique connections per person in the department	High degree = well-connected team. Low degree = potential silo or small team with few touchpoints.
Internal %	Fraction of a department's communications that stay within the department	High internal % = strong internal cohesion but possible insularity. Low = team spends most of its time collaborating externally.
External Reach	How many other departments this department connects to, as a proportion of all departments	High reach = bridging team that touches many parts of the organisation. Low reach = communicates with only one or two other groups.
Volume	Total number of communications originating from the department (normalized against the busiest department)	Shows raw activity level. A department can have high volume but low degree if a few people send many messages to the same contacts.
Reciprocity	Fraction of outgoing communications that are reciprocated (i.e. the other person also communicates back)	High reciprocity = balanced, two-way relationships. Low reciprocity = one-directional communication — the department pushes information out but gets little back, or vice versa.

All values are normalized to 0–100% so axes are directly comparable.

Reading the Chart

• A large, evenly shaped polygon indicates a well-rounded, highly active department.
• A spike on one axis highlights a standout trait — e.g. a team with very high External Reach but low Internal % is an outward-facing bridge team.
• Comparing two polygons reveals complementary strengths — e.g. one department handles volume while another provides cross-team bridging.
• Hover a department to dim others and see exact metric values.

Features

• Department colors: Uses the same colors as the network graph
• Legend: Lists all departments with their colors
• Export: JPG image or interactive HTML

Box / Violin

Shows the distribution of communication activity within each department — not just an average, but the full spread.

What It Shows

• Box plot per department: median line, Q1/Q3 box, whiskers at 1.5×IQR, outlier dots
• Violin overlay: Kernel density estimate (KDE) showing the distribution shape — bimodal distributions (e.g. a few heavy communicators plus many quiet ones) become immediately visible
• Y-axis: Communications per person (total edges involving each individual)
• X-axis: Departments, colored to match the network graph

Reading the Chart

• A tall, wide violin means the department has high variance — some people communicate a lot, others very little
• A narrow violin with a tight box means communication is evenly spread across members
• Outlier dots above the upper whisker identify individual super-connectors
• Compare median lines across departments to see which teams are most active overall
• Hover any department to see exact stats: median, Q1, Q3, range, and outlier count

Features

• Department colors: Matches the network graph
• Hover tooltips: Median, quartiles, range, people count
• Export: JPG image or interactive HTML

Chord

Circular flow visualization of department-to-department connections. Each department appears as a colored arc around a circle, with ribbons connecting departments that communicate.

What It Shows

• Arcs: One per department, sized by total communication volume
• Ribbons: Connect department pairs; width proportional to communication count
• Direction: Ribbons are asymmetric — the wider end indicates more outgoing messages from that department
• Colors: Match the network graph department colors

Reading the Chart

• A large arc means the department has high overall communication volume
• A thick ribbon between two departments means frequent communication between them
• Asymmetric ribbons reveal directional imbalance — one department initiates more than the other
• Hover an arc to highlight all of that department's connections and see total outgoing count
• Hover a ribbon to see exact counts in both directions (e.g. "Sales → Marketing: 45, Marketing → Sales: 32")

Features

• Department colors: Matches the network graph
• Hover highlighting: Dims unrelated ribbons for focus
• Legend: Lists all departments with their colors
• Export: JPG image or interactive HTML

How to Switch

1. Go to Graph Settings
2. Find the OWL card
3. Click a chart type — the Analytics nav leaf updates immediately
4. Click Generate to render the selected chart

Keyboard Shortcuts

Jump directly to any chart with Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows/Linux) + a function key:

Shortcut	Chart
Cmd+F1	Network Graph
Cmd+F2	Sankey
Cmd+F3	Time Series
Cmd+F5	Venn
Cmd+F6	Heatmap
Cmd+F7	Radar
Cmd+F8	Box / Violin
Cmd+F9	Chord

Time Filtering

All OWL charts use the sidebar time range slider for time filtering. For fine-grained control, click the time slider and use the left/right arrow keys to step forward or backward one increment at a time.

Shared Features

All OWL charts:

• Respect the sidebar time range slider — only filtered data is shown
• Respect netscore range filtering when available
• Respect source/target filters from the sidebar
• Support the chosen background image from Graph Settings
• Adapt to dark/light mode
• Can be exported as JPG or interactive HTML