Force Directed graph for visualizing hierarchical forms Bad Idea?

Question

Currently we got lots of forms which we realize using Tree-view. Person clicks the tree node and a forms we designed for that opens in page aside the tree-view(Using the tree-view because there is hierarchical data that is displayed). So we thought why not realize it using Force Directed Graph like www.spicynodes.com did , i know it's lot of work but before that

is this really a good idea?

What other choices do i have to realize something of this sort? Is there a product(free)/ component present that i don't know about?

Extras:

Webforms

Asp.net 2.0

Answer 1

I just took a look at Spicy Nodes, and I like it ... for some use cases. It's great if your tree model is fairly light, meaning there aren't too many items for each level. However, it would be hard to scale if the tree is fairly dense. Also, sometimes context is good. Losing context of where in the tree the user started from could be problematic in some situations.

My main cirticism however is the lack of search and filtering. When you have a nested tree structure of hundreds or maybe thousands of objects, most users aren't going to want to navigate it no matter how cute the navigational display. They will just want to search and filter to quickly find a specific object.

Answer 2

You may check visual explorer on the citation graph from Microsoft Academic Search, I guess it is using SilverLight technology.