Not really regarding what, but on the how front, I remember that one guy invented what he called "hive plots", and he seems to be claiming they're some kind of a panaceum to so called "hairball" plots:

http://www.hiveplot.net/

(His (?) earlier invention of a "circular graph" seems also to have gained some traction in sciency publications - see http://circos.ca/intro/circular_approach/)