Approaches to citations and references in user interfaces
All data points in Security Force Monitor's data are individually referenced, often with multiple sources. This presents a big usability challenge for us. This page contains ideas and discussion about the design options available.
The SFM prototype handled sources by creating footnotes using anchors.
Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crime](also has an end-note approach); a number in text corresponding to a citation in the end section of the page. A full citation appears in a pop-over when the user hovers over the in-text number. Along with this, there are user controls on the visibility and appear-after delay.
Wait by Why uses a pop-over too - blue circles for footnotes, grey boxes for references.
David Foster Wallace wrote notoriously long, digressive, multi-page footnotes. The Atlantic approached their display by putting a chip around text which is footnoted by Wallace; on click, a coloured box appears inline in the text.
As with our project, Global Detention Project references sources for every piece of data. They used a text expand approach too.
OpenTrials uses traditional inline footnote numbers in text but on click, a blind draws up from the bottom edge of the screen containing the full text of the reference.
When a lyric is clicked on Genius the content of the right-hand side panel is changed to show an annotation.
