1. A method of operating a computing device for processing a graphical object having at least one visual characteristic, the method comprising: with at least one processor: obtaining access to a data set; receiving a selection of the graphical object, selected from a plurality of available graphical objects that are different from one another, that have graphical object characteristics that are suitable for representing determined dimensions of the data set, and that include the graphical object; analyzing, by a software tool, via the at least one processor, without user input to the analyzing by the software tool, the graphical object to determine one or more parameters of the at least one visual characteristic that can be varied to visually represent data with the graphical object; and storing, in association with a representation of the graphical object, metadata that defines a capacity of the at least one visual characteristic to represent data.