Source: Compiled by Shawn Day/a>.
Sankey diagrams visualize the magnitude of flow between nodes in a network. This diagram focuses on the merger of Irish breweries during the period 1750-2013.
The fully automatic layout is convenient for rapid visualization—positioning nodes manually is tedious! However, the algorithm is not perfect; links are drawn with partial transparency to highlight crossings. To improve readability and further disambiguate links, this example also lets you reposition nodes interactively. The algorithm could be improved in the future, say to minimize link crossing or to support loopback in cyclical networks.