[Seamless] Visualize data without leaving Discover

[ryankeairns]

Summary

As an analyst, I would like the ability to quickly visualize data without leaving my document exploration context.

Problem

Two common exploration use cases in Discover are 1) verifying/learning about my data and 2) digging into issues and looking for patterns. Discover is a document-oriented, text-heavy experience by nature. That said, while exploring, information and clues can become more visible when visualized.

Solution

This is likely but one of many thoughts on how to approach this topic, but in the spirit of a providing a more seamless experience (and promoting Lens) we should consider adding a basic visualization preview to Discover so that users do not have to either leave/lose their Discover context or manage multiple browser tabs.

Considerations

• We don't want to recreate Lens in a flyout; let's explore when to make the crossover
• Discover is document-based; Lens visualizations are aggregation-based. How much aggregation can/should existing in Discover to support this enhancement?
• In the spirit of keeping things simple, we might consider limiting the preview to a single field and minimal configuration options. Beyond that, the user can jump to Lens
• On the topic of jumping over, how much can/should we accommodate the return portion of this flow? (from Lens back to Discover)
• How does this work with data views and Unified Search? Can we pass that context + filters over to Lens (and back)?
• To the previous point, must they be prompted to save the data view before exiting? Do temporary index patterns play a role in this?

Early concept

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-vis-editors @elastic/kibana-vis-editors-external (Team:VisEditors)

[shaunmcgough]

I like the concept. We could also have this somewhere in the flyout. I like the spark lines of field statistics, and wonder if we could add some of those in the flyout. Great initiative!

[stratoula]

This is highly connected to this #147472

[stratoula]

This is already done for text based mode. We could enable this for dataview mode too.

What we can do:
Treat the fields selection as drag and drop fields in Lens. Lens suggestion system will propose the best aggregation for this fiend and eventually the best chart. Users can also select among different suggestions.

[stratoula]

I am closing this as possible in ES|QL. I am tracking this in another issue #124751 (comment)