Complex networks are everywhere. From the moment we wake we are surrounded; from public transport systems to ‘real-life’ (shock horror!) social networks. They exist, but how can we visualise these in an efficient and succinct manner? That’s the challenge VisualComplexity has taken on. And won.
VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project’s main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.
Not all projects shown here are genuine complex networks, in the sense that they aren’t necessarily at the edge of chaos, or show an irregular and systematic degree of connectivity. However, the projects that apparently skip this class were chosen for two important reasons. They either provide advancement in terms of visual depiction techniques/methods or show conceptual uniqueness and originality in the choice of a subject. Nevertheless, all projects have one trait in common: the whole is always more than the sum of its parts.
I can’t pick a favourite from all of these great designs, but the ‘Most Visited Projects’ list is a good start (bottom left).