Integration of the iconographic technique with other visualization or analysis tools will represent an important
step toward the widespread use of this technique in exploratory data visualization. It will allow the exploration of relationships across a variety of representations. Integration will also allow exploitation of the differing advantages of complementary views and techniques. Integration will also open the door for developing experiments to determine relationships between particular patterns in the iconographic display and structures or trends in the database.
The development of interactions and icon operations oriented to support the visual exploration of databases is fundamental to the use of the iconographic technique. Users need to know whether or not a revealed pattern actually corresponds to a particular structure in the data. In the case that a revealed pattern corresponds to some structure in the data, users should be able to determine what that structure means in the data domain. Mapping has been identified as one of the significant problems in the iconographic technique. A framework in which users are able to interactively change the mapping in a particular region could allow the identification of mappings that resonate with the structure in the data. This idea could also be extended to identify icons that resonates with particular structures in the data.