What players currently have for the GUI in the main screen (let's call it the galaxy view), is a simplified view of their dust, influence, science, and strategic resources. Sometimes, it can be useful to have a little more than that without having to go to that respective screen.


If a player is focusing on a certain aspect of their empire, like science, it can be important to have a more permanent, expanded view of it in the galaxy view. Checking the tech tree every time I want to see what is queued is a minor annoyance. 


Another example is for fleet management for military. One could 'pin' a detail-only view of the military screen so that underneath the resources and science part of the UI, a small list of fleets and important health information could show up.


This UI element could be used for: displaying science info (more than how many turns left), fleets, economy, systems (name+FIDSI production), and other things I haven't thought of.


Hopefully I've articulated this well enough. If not, I can provide images of what I'm talking about.