VARIABLE RESOLUTION BIVARIATE PLOTS

Scatterplots are the method of choice for displaying the distribution of points in two dimensions. They are used to discover patterns such a s holes, outliers, modes, and association between the two variables. A common problem is overstriking-the overlap on the plotting surface of glyphs representing individual observations. Overstriking can create a misleading impression of the data distribution. The variable resolut ion bivariate plots (Varebi plots) proposed in this article deal with the problem of overstriking by mixing display of a density estimate an d display of individual observations. The idea is to determine the dis play format by analyzing the actual amount of overstriking on the scre en. Thus, the display format will depend on the sample size, the distr ibution of the observations, the size and shape of individual icons, a nd the size of the window. It may change automatically when the window is resized. Varebi plots reveal detail wherever possible, and show th e overall trend when displaying detail is not feasible.