Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information

Description

Networks are all around us. Our brain is a network of cells and cells themselves are networks of molecules. Societies are networks of people and on a larger scale, food webs and ecosystems are networks of species. Networks are not just prevalent in nature but also in many manmade structures, like power grids, transportation systems and the Internet. In October 2005, Manuel Lima, an interaction designer and researcher, founded VisualComplexity.com, a comprehensive repository of complex network visualisations. From an initial collection of roughly 80 projects, the website quickly grew to encompass over 700 projects, with a goal to facilitate a critical understanding of a spectrum of network visualisation methods. This book analyses, collects and presents some of the most interesting examples of information graphics in a single volume. Never before have we felt so strongly the notion of living in a highly interdependent world, where everything appears to be connected to everything else

Nominated by Creativity magazine as "one of the 50 most creative and influential minds of 2009," Manuel Lima is an interaction designer, researcher and founder of VisualComplexity.com, a comprehensive repository of complex network visualisations. He is a graduate of the Technical University of Lisbon (BA) and Parsons School of Design (MFA). He also writes and frequently speaks on the topic of information visualisation.

"A rigorously researched, beautifully designed, thoughtfully curated anthology of the world's most compelling work at the intersection of two relatively nascent yet increasingly powerful techno-cultural phenomena, network science and information visualization.... A powerful tool in your visual literacy arsenal for navigating the Information Age. From the Bible to Wikipedia edits to the human genome, the gorgeous and thought-provoking visualizations in the book will make you look at the world in a whole new way, and the insightful essays accompanying them will vastly expand your understanding of the trends and technologies shaping our ever-evolving relationship with information." -- Brain Pickings "Visual Complexity is a showcase for the intersection of art, design and science... Some of the examples are indeed silly. Some are profound. Many are decidedly beautiful. And all are fascinating, given the infinite kinds of data that can be visualized." --New York Times Book Review "Artistic analysis...tremendous potential for shaping how we understand our world...if you are the type who obsesses on Google Analytics or just feel the need to nerd out for a bit, pick up a copy." --Cool Hunting "Intellectually ambitious...the author engages this heady material with a surprisingly sharp and lucid eye." --Metropolis "Artistic analysis... tremendous potential for shaping how we understand our world... if you are the type who obsesses on Google Analytics or just feel the need to nerd out for a bit, pick up a copy." --Cool Hunting "From genealogical patterns in medieval tapestries to the math behind fractals, Lima, a senior UX design lead for Bing, shows how designers turn complex patterns into compelling artwork." --Wired "Incredibly ambitious, deeply researched, and beautifully illustrated." --frieze "Intellectually ambitious... the author engages this heady material with a surprisingly sharp and lucid eye." --Metropolis "Manuel Lima, the New York-based founder of visualcomplexity.com, works at the forefront of network science and information visualization. Appropriately, his book Visual Complexity cuts through digital clutter, using colorful examples to illustrate these fields." --Surface magazine