Use Shneiderman's overview-first protocol for graph…

When This Fires

• When opening your graph visualization tool for any exploratory session
• During periodic graph reviews when assessing structural health
• When looking for patterns, gaps, or unexpected clusters
• Before diving into any specific region of your graph — always start with overview

Common Failure Mode

Jumping to details immediately: opening a graph view and clicking on the first interesting-looking node to read its content. You've now anchored on that node's perspective and will explore outward from it rather than from the topology. The overview phase must happen first and without reading labels — pure shape, density, and connectivity.

The Protocol

(1) Overview: Open your full graph visualization. Don't read labels. Look at shape: Where are the dense clusters? Where are the sparse regions? Where are the isolated nodes? Where are the bridges between clusters? Spend 60 seconds just seeing topology. (2) Zoom and filter: Select a region that interests you — maybe a dense cluster, maybe a surprising bridge, maybe an isolated node. Zoom in. Now read labels but not full content. What themes emerge? (3) Details-on-demand: Only now open individual notes to read content. You've arrived here through structural navigation, not random access — the notes you're reading are structurally interesting, not just topically familiar.