Interactive exploration of multidimensional data

This paper describes a system called diamond for interactive exploration of multidimensional data. Diamond takes advantage of human pattern recognition and processing capacity, and puts major emphasis on performance and responsiveness. This creates a highly productive symbiosis between the human and the system. The basic philosophy of diamond is to depict the data with pictures, and to help the user manipulate the pictures to rapidly gain insight. Examples of some of the data visualizations the system provides are histograms, 2- and 3- dimensional scatter plots, parametric snake plots, parallel coordinate plots, and novel fractal foam plots. Numerous data presentations can be simultaneously displayed, and easily compared and contrasted. New data visualizations can be dynamically created at any time by making selections among the currently existing ones. The formulation and testing of hypotheses by the human user is expedited by permitting classifications and transformations upon the data from whichever perspective is convenient or interesting.