Paper Info
Title
GPLOM: The Generalized Plot Matrix for Visualizing Multidimensional Multivariate Data
Abstract
Scatterplot matrices (SPLOMs), parallel coordinates, and glyphs can all be used to visualize the multiple continuous variables (i.e., dependent variables or measures) in multidimensional multivariate data. However, these techniques are not well suited to visualizing many categorical variables (i.e., independent variables or dimensions). To visualize multiple categorical variables, 'hierarchical axes' that 'stack dimensions' have been used in systems like Polaris and Tableau. However, this approach does not scale well beyond a small number of categorical variables. Emerson et al. [8] extend the matrix paradigm of the SPLOM to simultaneously visualize several categorical and continuous variables, displaying many kinds of charts in the matrix depending on the kinds of variables involved. We propose a variant of their technique, called the Generalized Plot Matrix (GPLOM). The GPLOM restricts Emerson et al.'s technique to only three kinds of charts (scatterplots for pairs of continuous variables, heatmaps for pairs of categorical variables, and barcharts for pairings of categorical and continuous variable), in an effort to make it easier to understand. At the same time, the GPLOM extends Emerson et al.'s work by demonstrating interactive techniques suited to the matrix of charts. We discuss the visual design and interactive features of our GPLOM prototype, including a textual search feature allowing users to quickly locate values or variables by name. We also present a user study that compared performance with Tableau and our GPLOM prototype, that found that GPLOM is significantly faster in certain cases, and not significantly slower in other cases.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1109/TVCG.2013.160
Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions
Keywords
Field
DocType
data visualisation,GPLOM technique,Polaris system,SPLOM,Tableau system,barcharts,categorical variable visualization,continuous variable,generalized plot matrix,glyphs,heatmaps,multidimensional multivariate data visualization,parallel coordinates,scatterplot matrix,textual search feature,Data visualization,Multidimensional data,Prototypes,Visual databases,business intelligence,database visualization,databaseoverview,high-dimensional data,mdmv,parallel coordinates,relational data,scatterplot matrix,tabular data,user interfaces
Glyph,Data visualization,Clustering high-dimensional data,Computer science,Categorical variable,Matrix (mathematics),Theoretical computer science,Parallel coordinates,Biplot,Variables
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
12
1077-2626
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
23
0.98
24
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jean-Francois Im1331.47
Michael J. McGuffin298954.52
Rock Leung325917.98