Timeline interface to access different kinds of information

Design Thinking
#1

Hello there,

the client I am working with currently has already created interface ideas for the app we are designing. Most of those solutions are naive and form over function. Such is the idea to access a multitude of different kind of information via a timeline. The data you can access includes contract dates, due dates, communication with client service, promotions, campaign material, etc. Basically its a sort of feed, but in their case without the frequency of new data to justify the format.

Since the timeline enforces a sorting by date, it limits the possibilities how to search and access the data.

I am curious if anyone has user-tested a timeline interface or knows of any research that discusses this topic. I wasnt able to find any so far.

Also, any thoughts are welcome!

Manuel Julian

1 Like
#2

That’s a great question. =)

Garron Engstrom (Product Designer at Facebook) posted some of his thoughts about designing a timeline of people’s tax history. It’s a short but interesting read: Lessons learned while designing a timeline

His main points are:

  1. It doesn’t have to look like a timeline
  2. Anything that falls on the timeline should represent an action (ie, the action the data pertains to, not the data itself)
  3. Don’t show everything at once
  4. Show as much as you can (without going against #3)
1 Like
#3

What an awesome find Lukcha, many thanks! I’ll read up on it asap.