diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index fd248dd..4d1e661 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # Unreleased version
 
+- List-columns may now be passed to `timevis()`, to support `nestedGroups` and any other parameters that may require nested lists
 - Support `subgroupStack = TRUE` option (#117)
 - Don't use local images in demo app (#118)
 
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 7f9ca2f..e668e06 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -24,12 +24,11 @@ dataframeToD3 <- function(df) {
   row.names(df) <- NULL
   lapply(seq_len(nrow(df)), function(row) {
     row <- df[row, , drop = FALSE]
-    lapply(row[, !is.na(row), drop = FALSE], function(x) {
-      if (!is.logical(x)) {
-        as.character(x)
-      } else {
-        x
-      }
+    lapply(row[, !is.na(row), drop = FALSE], function(x){
+      if (!lengths(x)) return(NA)
+      if (is.logical(x)) return(x)
+      if (lengths(x) > 1 | is.list(x)) return(lapply(unlist(x),as.character))
+      return(as.character(x))
     })
   })
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/setup_helpers.R b/tests/testthat/setup_helpers.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a18e9b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/setup_helpers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# Produce a more informative output when failing expect_equivalent/identical
+# testcases for visual comparison
+info_comp <- function(actual, expect){
+  paste0(
+    c("Expect: ", "Actual: "),
+    c(expect, actual),
+    collapse = "\n"
+  )
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-dataframeToD3.R b/tests/testthat/test-dataframeToD3.R
index 4a686c1..61a7fd0 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-dataframeToD3.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-dataframeToD3.R
@@ -8,21 +8,24 @@ test_that("dataframeToD3 works with no input", {
 test_that("dataframeToD3 works with a single row", {
   df <- data.frame(name = "Dean", age = 27, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
   list <- list(list(name = "Dean", age = "27"))
-  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list)
+  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list,
+                   info = info_comp(dataframeToD3(df), list))
 })
 
 test_that("dataframeToD3 works with multiple rows", {
   df <- data.frame(name = c("Dean", "Ben"), age = c(27, 24))
   list <- list(list(name = "Dean", age = "27"),
                list(name = "Ben", age = "24"))
-  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list)
+  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list,
+                   info = info_comp(dataframeToD3(df), list))
 })
 
 test_that("dataframeToD3 works with NA values", {
   df <- data.frame(name = c("Dean", "Ben"), age = c(27, 24), degree = c("MSc", NA))
   list <- list(list(name = "Dean", age = "27", degree = "MSc"),
                list(name = "Ben", age = "24"))
-  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list)
+  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), list,
+                   info = info_comp(dataframeToD3(df), list))
 })
 
 test_that("dataframeToD3 errors when given a non-dataframe", {
@@ -33,5 +36,36 @@ test_that("dataframeToD3 errors when given a non-dataframe", {
 test_that("dataframeToD3 returns the same whether the dataframe is pure or merged", {
   df <- data.frame(name = c("Dean", "Ben"), age = c(27, 24))
   df_rbind <- rbind(df[1, ], df[2, ])
-  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), dataframeToD3(df_rbind))
+  expect_identical(dataframeToD3(df), dataframeToD3(df_rbind),
+                   info = info_comp(dataframeToD3(df), dataframeToD3(df_rbind)))
+})
+
+
+test_that("nested columns behave the way they ought to",{
+  matts_hobbies <- c("Working", "thinking about work")
+  df <- data.frame(name = c("Dean", "Matt"),
+                   age = c(27, 23),
+                   hobbies = c(NA, NA))
+  df$hobbies[2] <- list(matts_hobbies)
+  out <- dataframeToD3(df)
+  expect <- list(list(name = "Dean", age = "27"),
+                 list(name = "Matt", age = "23", hobbies = as.list(matts_hobbies)))
+  expect_identical(out, expect, info = info_comp(out, expect))
+
+  df2 <- df
+  expect2 <- expect
+
+  deans_hobby <- "Responding to pull requests"
+  df2$hobbies[[1]] <- list(deans_hobby)
+  expect2[[1]]$hobbies <- list(deans_hobby)
+  out2 <- dataframeToD3(df2)
+  expect_identical(out2, expect2, info = info_comp(out2, expect2))
+
+  df3 <- df2
+  expect3 <- expect2
+  expect3[[1]]$hobbies <- NA
+
+  df3$hobbies[[1]] <- list()
+  out3 <- df3 %>% dataframeToD3()
+  expect_identical(out3, expect3, info = info_comp(out3, expect3))
 })