Students can begin using Tinkerplots without knowledge of conventional graphs or different data types, without thinking in terms of variables or axes.

By ordering, stacking, and separating data icons, students gradually organize data to answer their questions. Students can analyze data that come with the program, that they download from the Internet, or that they enter themselves.

Using the construction set of basic operations, students create a wide variety of graphs, including standards like pie charts, histograms, and scatterplots, and novel graphs of their own invention.

Because plots are built up in stages, students can deconstruct unfamiliar plots to learn how to interpret them. Students can save the current plot configuration as a new command ("skyline graph") to later recreate that plot type in one step.

To perceive variability in data, Tinkerplots offers more than position along axes; it also offers differences in icon size, color, and sound. These additional modalities allow students to detect covariation in powerful and intuitive ways.