Purpose
We have a catalog of over 30,000 individually segmented images of stem cells, and for each we've measured features like cellular volume and nuclear volume. We want other researchers to be able to explore and download our data. This new tool is an analysis first version, where the user can plot the cells by different parameters, select a subsection of cells, download them, and view them in 3D. 

We've currently released 4 datasets, and are continuing to expand the data and functionality. 

Early Version

Our first version of the 3D viewer had a plot as a side panel, but the main view was a gallery of images. Once our library got larger, navigating by a chart seemed to be more useful than by paging through thousands of images. 

Design

We used moqups to create an interactive prototype and tested it internally with other people at the Allen Institute to find out what features researchers would want and how to make them user friendly. 

In development
This is a soft launch, and we are continuing to develop and improve the cell feature explorer. Currently I am working on a new gallery view, and improving the download tools. 

New 3D viewer

In addition to the plotting tool, we've been working on updating the design and implementation of our 3D cell viewer. I recently published it as an npm package. My goal is to create a UI library of react components so we can more easily create viewers for different data sources.