: How to conceptualise and generate visualisations with many points interconnected via Bézier curves? Can someone uncover the design process behind social network visualisations such as http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com

@Jessie844

So those kind of network graphs are often called node link diagrams. This article might be a good place to start: The Links That Bind Us: Network Visualizations.

Except for very small datasets, I'd use a code library or tool that generates networks like this. D3 is a javascript library designed for creating complex visualisations like these. "Force directed" algorithms are popular for spacing things out nicely - here's an example with bezier curves.



There are also pieces of desktop software that generate them without code and that often allow the nodes and links to be dragged around. Maltego Casefile is one free example. These tend to be more useful for aiding research and for rough 'data sketches' than for final designs, but they can be a handy tool.

Some of these can plug into social networks or parse email files directly: otherwise, you'll need to look up the appropriate API and do some coding.

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