Drill Peek

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When navigating a grid dataset, we already have the option to make each cell a button. From that button, we can drill to a screen or protocol for more information. Doing so opens the target in either the same tab or a new tab, changing the focus to the new screen.  I think it would be nice to provide a peak tool, such that hovering the mouse over a cell would provide a thumbnail size image of the target screen, visualization or layout. We already have the ability to define tooltips, but they must live within the same layout. A peak tool would provide a user the ability to see more rich visualizations or layouts without having to change their current focus. Maybe this is already a feature, but I just don't know how to do it. If that's the case, please let me know.

 

Consider this use case.

 

• As a lending manager, I'm looking at a grid of my product sales information over the past 12 months, as the monthly grain.
  
• I think there may be some spikes in certain weeks of the month for certain metrics. I want to hover over the closing balance for December 2019 and see a thumbnail chart like the following. This chart is at a lower grain than the current layout. Ideally, this could also be a thumbnail image of the target drillthrough screen.
  
• Seeing this trend line, means there are no peaks and valleys. There is a downward trendline at the lower level of detail. begs the question, why is the trend declining? At this point, I'll use the drillthrough protocol to go to a screen with more information. The thumbnail, may have also shown there is no need for concern. In that case, I'll just stay on the same screen and continue reviewing the report.
• I may be able to show trendlines for each row of my grid. Trendlines need to fit into the size of the cell, and must be drawn for every row. In this experience, I don't need to see a trendline for every row and I want it to be large enough to be visible enough to answer a meaningful question. A tooltip style popup over the grid would be an effective use of screen real-estate, only when needed.
• In a similar way, I should be able to mouseover the Attrition cell and see a thumbnail of the target screen. The thumbnail would be too small to read, but large enough to remind a user what screen opens when they click that button.
  
• If we have logos saved to an image cube, we can show those logos in a tooltip in the same fashion. 
• This is a combination of the query function of a layout or visualization, with the popup image of data from an image cube.
• The user experience is more fluid with a peak experience than having a user load the target and then having to go back, when they decide it's not the direction in which they want to explore.
• Users may be encouraged to explore by showing them what to expect if they click on a drillthrough button.
• I understand there needs to be limits on this functionality. I don't want a detailed chart to render for every line in the report. That would increase the load time without a lot of benefit. If the peak layout was limited to only one visualization or one screen thumbnail, it could be retrieved quickly while the mouseover is active. 
• A side-effect of this feature would be the need to generate thumbnail views of screens.