Beyond SDL: Into the Wonderful World of Graphs

Abstract

GraphQL says “graph,” but SDL keeps us in text. In this talk, we step beyond SDL into the wonderful world of graphs. I will show how layout choices affect readability and we explore why hierarchical (Sugiyama-style) diagrams can beat force-directed “hairballs.” Drawing on lessons from building GraphQL Voyager, I’ll share quick visual experiments and practical heuristics—simplifying connections, collapsing low-signal nodes, separating operation roots. I’ll also present emerging interactions for large, GitHub-scale schemas. You’ll leave with a grounded view of the possibilities and limits of graph visualization, plus sneak peeks at new experiments I’m working on.