Visualization notations, models and taxonomies

Visualization taxonomies are an important means of imposing some structure on a rather diverse field. We review some earlier work in this area, particularly work based on the use of a notation to label classes of visualization techniques that are appropriate to particular entities. We propose a new notation introducing it in the context of a new visualization reference model, one we hope will lead eventually to a means of describing visualizations in a clear and unambiguous way.