Visualizing Complex Links

Maybe this site has been doing the rounds already in th blogosphere, but I just discovered it: Visual Complexity, a great collection of visualizations of complex relationships. Most experience designers (and my guess is all Information Architects) have had to create these network-style diagrams.

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.

This could almost be a quiz: Can you guess what is represented, based on the thumbnail?

• Of course I recognized one image from the thumbnails: My hometown Amsterdam.
• The image of flightpaths above the USA also was familiar enough to spot.
• London's underground isn't there, but the Paris Metro, Berlin Bahn, Zurich Transportation system, Mainz Bus Map and Leipzig Tram System are all present.

Oh, and the tree is my favourite.