Comparative evaluation of the Scatter Plot Matrix and Parallel Coordinates Plot Matrix

Abstract

The Scatter Plot Matrix (SPLOM) and the Parallel Coordinates Plot Matrix (PCPM) are frequently used in exploratory data analysis for multivariate data to explore pairwise relationships, clustering and outliers. The SPLOM and PCPM are complex visualization methods with many potential interactions between data, task and visual representation. While numerous studies exist evaluating the SPLOM and Parallel Coordinates Plot (PCP) there is, to the best of our knowledge, no existing study evaluating the PCPM. This pilot study presents an evaluation of the performance of the SPLOM and PCPM for a set of common explorative tasks and identifies key directions for future work. The overall results indicate a minimal performance difference between the visualization methods for most tasks, but with significant variance between users, interactions between data features and response by method, and strong user preferences depending on task. As such, we recommend careful consideration of the background of potential users when choosing a method, and/or the use of complementary or linked views. Further work is required to understand the particular mechanisms impacting users' highly variable performance with the PCPM.