Design for Information

CHAPTER 2

RELATIONAL STRUCTURES: NETWORKS

As the name indicates, relational structures organize data for which relationships are key to the system being visualized. Or to put it another way, there is much that can be learned by studying the patterns of connections between elements in the system—that is, the network of systems. Shneiderman and colleagues provide a good example in the context of social studies: “The focus of social network analysis is between, not within people. Whereas traditional social-science research methods such as surveys focus on individuals and their attributes (e.g., gender, age, income), network scientists focus on the connections that bind individuals together, not exclusively on their internal qualities or abilities. ...