What would be user interface solutions/best practices for exploring mid-size hierarchies (100-3000 nodes)?
By exploring, I mean ability to read labels of individual nodes, see hierarchical relationships, perhaps focus on part of the hierarchy, and maybe display detailed data on each node on click or hover.
Examples of what I am searching for:
Structure of Georgia Government
or
or
the tree of Diderot and d'Alembert
or maybe some even larger and more complex data sets.
Presenting large data is always interesting. Of all available ways to display large data the most prominent ones are micro-list, multi varient charts, drill down tables. But from UX point of view I humbly suggest not to blast user with all information at single shot. If you have option to profile user interest then display information that are relevant to him and rest hidden. Let the user explore further to reach less interested information. As a fall back you can always havw a full indented list or zoomable charts as last resort. D3 charts will be a better option.
