3D social network visualization

Juli sent this link. My pet peeve is calling things “3D.” It’s a 2D display–it’s on a flat screen, after all. Or I guess it is actually 3D, counting time as the third dimension. In any case, it looks cool, but I’m skeptical about its usefulness for understanding networks (for the reasons Matt has given in the past).

1 thought on “3D social network visualization

  1. Even if our eyes are 2.5D (stereo vision matters), we are able to perceive a 3D environment from a sequence of 2.5D views: you remember the relative location of elements that might no longer be in view. 3D done in a smart way does enhance visualization, the same way zooming helps in 2D.

    The visualization on the link is visually cool, but doesn't help understand the structure of the network very much.

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