"[Multivariate Visualization Techniques that are] easier to understand and more accessible are needed for the general population. Dust & Magnet is an information visualization technique and system to help people better understand relatively large, multivariate data sets. The technique is especially designed for use by people who struggle with interpreting the complex data of everyday problems and who are not experts in information visualization and are not familiar with existing multivariate visualizaiton techniques.
The system uses a magnet metaphor in which the individual data cases are represented as particles of iron dust, and magnets represent the different variables of the data set. Users interactively manipulate the magnets and then the dust moves appropriately thus exposing characteristics of the data set. The basic idea of DnM is fairly simple. When a magnet is dragged, dust particles are attracted to the magnet based on the value of the attribute corresponding to the magnet. For example, if the magnet represents vitamins, a piece of dust with a higher value for vitamins attracts more than a piece of dust with a lower value for vitamins. Additionally, if multiple Magnets are placed on the main screen, all Magnets on the screen affect the movement of Dust particles simultaneously even though the user drags only one Magnet." (Georgia Tech: Dust and Magnet)
Yi, Ji Soo, Rachel Melton, John Stasko, and Julie A. Jacko. "Visualization Using a Magnet Metaphor." (2005). http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~stasko/papers/iv05-dnm.pdf.
Yi, Ji Soo, Rachel Melton Ponder, Julie Jacko, and John Stasko. "Dust & Magnet." Georgia Tech: Information Interfaces. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.
Ji Soo Yi. "Dust & Magnet." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 October 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLXwL38xek0. 8 April 2016.
All rights reserved. David Cromwell and Adam Markun