[Lens] Selecting a suggested visualization doesn't switch the current visualization title

[markov00]

Kibana version:
7.12

Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.):
cloud
Describe the bug:
When you select and click a suggested visualization, the current visualization title on the suggestion panel doesn't change to the selected one, creating confusion. A Refresh button appears and will "cleaup" the state, but seems a bit strange that this need a another user interaction to get the title correctly positioned to the current visualization

Steps to reproduce:

1. create a Lens visualization
2. click on one suggested visualization
3. the suggested visualization is focused/clicked by the current visualization title remain displayed on the first visualization on the left.

Expected behavior:
The current visualization title should be placed exactly on the selected visualization, not only on the first visualization on the left.

Screenshots (if relevant):

Errors in browser console (if relevant):
n/a

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-app (Team:KibanaApp)

[flash1293]

That's by design at the moment - but I understand your confusion.

The idea here is on switching to a suggestion, you are "peeking" into this suggestion. As soon as you hit refresh (or start editing something in the chart), it "commits" the suggestion, and it becomes the new "Current visualization".

People were confused about this a bunch of times (especially what "Refresh" means here).

I'm going to relabel as enhancement for now.

cc @MichaelMarcialis

[MichaelMarcialis]

Yes, I believe I mentioned experiencing similar confusion regarding this behavior when we were updating the suggestion buttons' focus states. I completely agree with @markov00's take here.

@flash1293, you mention this is done intentionally as a means to preview a suggestion before committing to it. Is this because committing to a suggestion currently updates the available suggestions (thus potentially leaving the user in a position where they cannot go back to their previous visualization state)? If so, I imagine such concerns could be remedied by 1) the inclusion of an undo feature and/or 2) preventing the suggestions from updating until additional modifications have been made the visualization to warrant new suggestions being presented. Thoughts?

[wylieconlon]

@MichaelMarcialis Your intuition is exactly right, we didn't want users to get stuck. To respond to your ideas specifically:

1. We haven't talked about undo/redo in a while because a generic undo feature is more complicated, here's the issue for it. Maybe we can find a way to reduce the scope.

2. That is exactly how the suggestions behave today. If you select a suggestion, it loads the state as a preview. If you modify the state then the suggestion gets fully applied and new suggestions are loaded.

[flash1293]

We wanted to user to be able to switch around suggestions quickly - an undo/redo feature would help with this and be a useful feature in itself, but it's not exactly the same because the flow would become "select suggestion - undo - select next suggestion" instead of "select suggestion - select next suggestion".

If we don't think clicking through the suggestions is a thing we want to highlight, then we could remove this feature once we have undo/redo, but I hope we can come up with a better system that's more intuitive.

[markov00]

In order to provide better transparency of priorities, issues that will not be prioritized within the next 24 months are being closed.

Tracking request in Lens general improvements ice box #184459