This is a self-contained briefing and a working instrument. It packages what the HCI literature knows about the link between a user's sense of control and visualising data as an interactive context / knowledge graph — then lets you feel each finding by hand. Built to be read by a multidisciplinary team: skim the takeaways, expand the evidence, and leave with concrete rules you can build against.
Twelve shared terms so a designer, a researcher and an engineer mean the same thing by "focus + context" or "hairball".
Drag the size & density dials, toggle control-restoring patterns, switch representations, and watch the control meter respond in real time.
The studies behind every claim — takeaway first, expand for method, sample and the actual numbers, with links to the sources.
Eleven concrete design rules for anyone building a graph UI, each tied back to the evidence.
Everything here maps to a finding. The meter on the right tracks the user's likely sense of control; the card beneath it names the principle you're demonstrating right now.
Tap any card for the professional summary, the method and sample, the key numbers, and a link to the source. Summaries are paraphrased — follow the links for the originals.
So a designer, a researcher and an engineer mean the same thing in the same meeting.
Each rule is a direct consequence of the evidence. Steal them.