Visualizing Node-Link Graphs

An essay on how to make graphs easier to understand. Topics include creating a visual graph language as well as utilizing the third spatial dimension, all with plenty of pretty pictures.

1.0 — Introduction

During Claude Shannon’s tenure at Bell Labs (a research arm of what we now call AT&T, responsible for things like the transistor, Unix, and the cell phone), the Bell Labs patent lawyers tried to figure out why some people were awarded more patents than others. After much consternation and head scratching, the patent lawyers “discerned only…