This visualization is created to help academics in the field of psychology. More specifically, it presents some important contextual and historical Influences in Psychology and also the related perspectives and psychologist.
The whole dashboard looks simple but elegant. It uses one type of mark and two types of channels to encode the data. The node presents each element, such as a psychologist or social method. The color is to differentiating types of information. The size of node will be enlarged when user select a related node. The more relevant these two node is, the larger the node is. The hidden X-axis is time-based, from 19th centenary at left to 21th at right.
Using this visualization tool, I believe student will master the study of psychology in more easy way. And it also encourages student to self-explore. However, it will be better if it could provide us with the information about why the linked topic are relevant.
Reference:
http://www2.open.ac.uk/openlearn/CHIPs/index.html