It's great that the distortion isn't done on a pixel level but rather at the object level -- it's mesmerizing to see the edges move ever so slightly when mousing over a region
Yes, it's an interesting 3D effect. From the article,
> This is particularly useful for disambiguating edge-crossings in static layouts: edges between distant nodes are distorted more strongly than local ones.
> This is particularly useful for disambiguating edge-crossings in static layouts: edges between distant nodes are distorted more strongly than local ones.