Totally agree with John! Another use case or problem that the timeline view addresses is discoverability, which walks together with clarity. As already mentioned, a simple 1st iteration to implement a basic view with colored bars (notes), with length based on the difference/range between two [date] properties would already help with clarity / discoverability. ¹
It’s not just an UI/UX enhancement: it enables the use of a common pattern (the timeline/gantt) to help view story progression of information on the medium/long term.
It opens up for features that helps identify patterns that other views and Graph View doesn’t achieve
Not just project management (notes taken towards a goal), it helps developing ideas in a focused way that other types of views don’t enable you to do. It takes the best of Canvas and Graph View, leveraging the use of time. So it is actually not just a simple UI/UX enhancement for Bases - the timeline actually opens up for powerful features, such as:
- viewing relationship ² (links) between notes through time within the timeline view;
- viewing dependencies of notes ², i.e., types of relationships between notes;
- filtering of types of relationships and grouping of types of notes within the timeline, like section bars grouping notes of some kind of tag or other property
All of which helps identifying patterns through time and making focused progress on developing new ideas - similar to the Graph View.
The main differential is the clarity through time
As already mentioned by the author, a simple version of a timeline view with colored bars with length based on a range (date time values), and filtering those values, would already be a great milestone. It would not just make the navigation of notes better, but help the user grasp the evolution of a particular set of notes through time better (which currently there is no other great alternative for), identifying new patterns in a focused way that is only achievable by timeline, similar to the Graph View (I know I repeated myself a lot, but really, some kind of patterns aren’t achievable if not viewed - for the last time - through time), and opens up for way more powerful features as some also mentioned above.
Despite the decision regarding this feature, I (and most people) for sure are grateful for the work being done with Bases and all of Obsidian itself, and the care for its community. The existence of this app and its community opens for so much real world opportunities and a better quality of life. Please, keep up the good work!
¹ To make it future-proof by not enforcing front-matter properties with dates (or any value type for range) on notes, the timeline view could use the file’s meta properties createdAt and lastModifiedAt; it can let the user set two date properties and change it whenever seems fit.
² The bars (notes) could have its links displayed as lines connecting notes within the view (similar to Graph View); types of links can be defined by different property names (e.g.: list type for zero to many rel. and text type for zero to one rel.); could have toggle of link visibility and link colors per property type.