Snapshot
When people can interact with the parameters of a visualization, they need to be able to store ‘snapshots’ of the visualization in order to communicate their understanding of a specific visualization configuration.
Use when
Interactive visualization is used to support discussion of a dataset.
Solution
Allow people to store and retrieve configurations of a data visualization.
Many Eyes allows a snapshot of the current visualization state to be saved, and attached to a separate text based comment.
Why
- Being able to see what another person saw is an important way of understanding what they are trying to communicate.
- Collecting snapshots along with discussion is a good way to illustrate the evolution of understanding around a dataset.
How
- When commenting on a data visualization, attach a ‘snapshot’ of what the visualization currently looks like to the comment.
- When selecting a comment, configure the visualization to reflect the ‘snapshot’ associated with that comment.
Issues
Snapshots do not provide a good overview of the insight that a community has extracted from a visualisation. It is necessary to look through each snapshot and comment to get a sense of what has transpired.
