Views: Slice Results by Place and Time

"What did everyone say?" is one question. "What did the north side say?" and "what changed after the meeting?" are better ones. Views are how you ask them.

A view is a saved slice of your responses — by area, by date range, or both. Open a view and the whole page redraws around it: the map, the timeline, and the theme leaderboard all reflect only the responses inside it.

The views list

Every poll starts with one view, All Stories, which is everything. Saved views appear underneath it. Click one to switch.

Make a view from the map

Responses are plotted on the map by approximate location. To cut a view out of it, draw the area you want — a ward, a precinct, a few blocks, one side of a river. When you close the shape, you'll be asked to name the view.

Give it a name you'll still understand in a month ("East of the tracks" beats "New View"), then choose Create View.

Make a view from the timeline

The timeline shows responses by when they arrived. Select a date range on it and you'll get the same naming prompt.

This is the one for before-and-after: the week around a public meeting, the days after a news story, the stretch when your flyers went up.

Rename or delete a view

Open the view, then use the chevron next to its name:

• Edit to rename it.

• Delete to remove it.

Deleting a view is permanent, but it only removes the saved slice — the responses inside it are untouched and still counted in All Stories.

What views are good for

• Comparing neighborhoods. Build one view per area and read the leaderboard in each. The theme that tops one and is absent from another is the finding.

• Measuring an effort. A date-range view around a push tells you whether it changed what people said, not just how many said it.

• Briefing someone. A view is a stable link to one slice, so a colleague opens exactly what you were looking at.