A problem-oriented classification of visualization techniques

Progress in scientific visualization could be accelerated if workers could more readily find visualization techniques relevant to a given problem. The authors describe an approach to this problem, based on a classification of visualization techniques, that is independent of particular application domains. A user breaks up a problem into subproblems, describes these subproblems in terms of the objects to be represented and the operations to be supported by a representation, locates applicable visualization techniques in a catalog, and combines these representations into a composite representation for the original problem. The catalog and its underlying classification provide a way for workers in different application disciplines to share methods