Open gvnmagni opened 2 years ago
Pinging @elastic/datavis (Team:DataVis)
Great work @gvnmagni! Jotting down my initial feelings here.
A. Things I immediately like:
B. Things where it might contradict to the (current) context:
C. Things I wish could be added
D. Control of the time domain and bin width I assume here a future state where we have zoom and pan. A direct manipulation zoom and pan directly controls the time domain, but not necessarily the bin width (therefore bin count). The bin width is important, and there are conflicting forces at play:
Maybe we can call it a kind of "smart summarization" đŸ˜„
E. Histo bar, categorical bar, points/lines In the past, the Discover chart was a pure histogram (counts) so the full-width, touching bars were sensible. We'd need to know if this is sensible for the currently envisioned new aggregates, and if not, what other geometries come in play. Also, how would the use of other geometries (lines, points, boxplots) influence the rest of the chart.
F. Preexisting design concept - timeslip A significant amount of design work went into the timeslip prototype, which addresses many of the items above, and took care of a number of other considerations (zoom and pan; fading out partial bars and tick labels at the edges etc.). It's also conducive for certain other types of geometries. The current mock above seems more suited for a categorical interpretation of time, in some contrast with the already introduced time axis. While there are some open questions above, and others may have too, I also wonder if we can take the timeslip prototype as a design orientation point and pose issues or design alteration suggestions relative to that
Pinging @elastic/kibana-vis-editors @elastic/kibana-vis-editors-external (Team:VisEditors)
Pinging @elastic/kibana-data-discovery (Team:DataDiscovery)
TL;DR The histogram could benefit from a design intervention that could improve its style and role within the Discover page.
This issue is meant to be a starting point to discuss about the role and implementation of the histogram at the top of Discover page. The main issues are related to its style, to its importance and therefore role within the page.
Dimension and proportions Currently, the histogram suffers a little its small height. The bigger risk in this case is given by how we read charts, unfortunately the chart proportions could affect greatly how we perceive trends and changes in values over time. To give a brief example, the following image show the same exact data displayed on 4 chart which differ only in term of proportions. As everybody can see, the chart itself can emphasise or reduce the importance of values and changes affecting a correct read and interpretation of data. We should take in consideration what would be the best proportion by default for this chart.
Chart typology
If there is little room to improve the histogram proportion and its visual importance, we should then consider if that is the right chart for the context. Barchart are the best option to compare height of bars and therefore to quickly understand if there are differences between two buckets, having a little height unfortunately affect enormously the functionality. Would be interesting to consider alternatives and see how they perform in the same context
Style
The current use of labels on axis and placement of elements could be revised a little bit to increase as much as possible the amount of space dedicated to the proper chart. Some work in this case is already in progress through other initiative but it is a good idea to consider this aspect as well.
As I said, this issue is meant to be a "conversation starter" and none of the images above are proper design solutions, the goal is start considering how to improve the current histogram not only revolving around its aesthetic but also its role and function.