Within the DUALNETS project, we developed VINA (Visual Interface for Network Assessment). It was designed to collect quantitative social network data, including cognitive social structures and name interpreters, in an intuitive, engaging, and ethically responsible way. It works directly in the internet browser of any device, with no installation of an external application required.

VINA was designed in co-creation with game design students at Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht. It was demonstrated at social network workshops in Mannheim (2023) and Oxford (2024), and at the Sunbelt conference in Edinburgh (2024) and Paris (2025).

A working paper introducing the software and reporting the first empirical test in a large-scale school study can be downloaded here:

Nijs, T.; Stark, T.H.; and Boda, Z. (February 10, 2026). Introducing VINA: An Engaging and Ethically Responsible Interface To Collect Social Network Data Including Cognitive Social Structures on Smartphones . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6327198 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6327198

VINA is available on GitHub under a CC-BY 4.0 license here.

See the video below for a demo of some of the features of the software: