In Observable Canvases, users can freely arrange charts and analysis across two dimensions for unconstrained, branching data exploration. Learn how we designed custom connectors that keep data flow clear and manageable at any scale: buff.ly/aEfiuLx

Want to make visuals that don’t just inform — but resonate? Join us on Nov 11 for Art + science: Blending creativity and analysis in data visualization, and learn how experts balance clarity, creativity, and collaboration. 🎙️@shirleywu.studio 🎙️@tanyashapiro.bsky.social 🎙️Kelsey Nanan

What happens when a computer scientist helps oncologists visualize patient-survey data? Read how Dr. Philip Bogden’s interactive data app turned messy spreadsheets into insights — and reshaped collaboration in medical research. buff.ly/kRyB12U

It's now even easier to build on-brand data visualizations in Observable Canvases. 🎨 With our new data-driven colors, you can quickly define custom color scales based on categories in your data. Learn how Observable helps you create fast, consistently branded charts: buff.ly/YCkFGLB

🕸️ For our final Observa-bite of the month we are adding radar charts (aka spider charts) to Observable Canvases. Check out radar charts, and all of our advanced chart types, available in canvases: buff.ly/l76pX6m

Great data viz is both art and science. 🎨📊 Join Observable’s @allisonhorst.bsky.social + our powerhouse panel for an inspiring discussion on where the two converge. 🎙️@shirleywu.studio 🎙️@tanyashapiro.bsky.social 🎙️Kelsey Nanan buff.ly/GuvF7c2

Observable’s built-in charts are designed by top data visualization developers, interactive by default, & fast — even with big data. We’ve expanded our suite of advanced types to include Sankeys, beeswarms, arc maps & more. Meet our state-of-the-art data visualizations 👉 buff.ly/eZYyQYd

Table nodes in Observable Canvases are powerful for fast, UI-based data wrangling. In addition to interactive filtering and column management, you can now derive new columns, convert data types, and limit rows — all in the same place. Learn more: buff.ly/l76pX6m

Ever built a chart that was technically correct, but still led people astray? Accuracy alone doesn’t guarantee clarity. Fast forward to 23:02 of the storytelling with data podcast to hear examples , and what you can do to balance data accuracy, clarity, and audience engagement.

🔍 Data exploration should inspire new questions & analyses. But some BI tools make exploration cumbersome, and discourage alternate exploration paths. Observable Canvases are designed for fast, iterative data exploration and analysis. Meet 8 canvas features that make it possible: buff.ly/oVZDhLX

Our state of BI and analytics survey is still open! Share your feedback on big topics in BI — like how you're using AI in your data work and the pain points you face in your role. Take the survey here —> buff.ly/N3ev6m4

🪄 Chart theming is here! Now, in Observable Canvases, you can apply custom color palettes and fonts to create dashboards that are automatically on-brand. Get started with dashboards and chart theming here: buff.ly/I1nu82R

You’ve shipped your dashboard and checked it off the list. ✅ Done? Not quite. “A successful dashboard isn't ever done… it should evolve to stay relevant as a hub for discussion and decision-making.” - Allison Horst (Observable DevRel). Hear more on the storytelling with data podcast→

😱 Horrified by the hours you've spent building dashboards that end up rotting in forgotten bookmarks? Observable Canvases simplify development, boost collaboration, & put interactive charts at your fingertips, so you can deliver better dashboards that stay alive for the long haul: buff.ly/43H8IKQ

Despite claims that dashboards are dead, they remain a highly requested BI deliverable. New features in Observable Canvases, like our streamlined viewer experience and control nodes, make dashboards easier to build and better to use, so they stay alive and well:

We have lots of exciting treats in store for the month of October! Check back each Tuesday for new features and functionality in Observable Canvases. The first new feature drops tomorrow (and it's a big one!).

🐝 Beeswarm charts are a powerful way to explore quantitative variable distributions, and a useful alternative to more aggregated options like histograms & box plots. Meet our expanding library of state-of-the-art, interactive charts in Observable Canvases: buff.ly/SLQY7SD

📣 Calling all data professionals! We just launched a new survey on the state of business intelligence and analytics tools, and we want to hear from you. Share your POV here:

Data joins are everywhere in analytics, but it's tricky to build UI-based joins in a reactive canvas. In Observable Canvases, we’ve built robust joins that avoid SELECT *, deduplicate columns, and handle upstream changes. Learn more:

We recently announced Observable Notebooks 2.0 with a new, open notebook file format + desktop app. Now, we’ve added Python & Node.js data loaders — special cells that run at build time, for better stability and performance. Learn more 👉

Slow-loading tables and overworked browsers can bog down analysis when you're exploring large datasets. In our new post, we explain how table virtualization in Observable Canvas keeps data work fast and fluid — even with big data, and when viewing complex, branching analyses: buff.ly/7cfqsQA

Treemaps help you go beyond donut charts and stacked bars to visualize parts of a whole for hierarchical data. Learn how canvases put state-of-the-art, interactive charts like treemaps, Sankey diagrams, beeswarms, bump charts, and more at your fingertips: buff.ly/DaE8zgO

Observable Plot has crossed 100,000 weekly downloads (and very close to 5,000⭐️s)! observablehq.observablehq.cloud/oss-analytic...

Observable Notebook Kit & Desktop 1.4 now support TypeScript cells, along with TypeScript for Node.js data loader cells. (Just type stripping, but greatly helps interoperability.)

Observable Canvases now support BigQuery making it easy for more companies to connect, query, and build. Get started today at: buff.ly/DaE8zgO

Self-serve analytics sounds great — that is, until tools overwhelm or constrain users, and adoption tanks. Our VP of Sales, Trevor Eddy, shares how collaborative analytics delivers insights and finally fulfills the promise of self-serve BI:

Sankey diagrams make it easy to see how quantities flow through a system, but they're tough to build from scratch. In Observable Canvases, you can create Sankey diagrams (plus arc maps, beeswarms, & more) in minutes — all optimized for clarity and performance: buff.ly/gsd0cpg

Observable Notebook Kit and Desktop 1.3.0 are out, featuring data loader cells. You can now (finally!!) write Python and Node.js in notebooks. 🐍 observablehq.com/notebook-kit...

Bump charts show how rankings shift over time, and are a great option when order matters more than absolute values. In Observable Canvases, you can now build & share responsive bump charts with just a few clicks. See what's new in our summer release: buff.ly/ZDxrAvt

For one of the most common operations in all of data wrangling, implementing UI-based data joins is anything but straightforward. Software engineer Tony Sullivan shares some unexpected challenges behind joins and how we handle them in Observable Canvases: buff.ly/4FRU9C9

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, September 4 at 10am PT, for a webinar showcasing the latest features in Observable Canvases, including new chart types, additional data sources, and improved dashboards: buff.ly/QPox1Oj

Observable Canvases make it lightweight to share interactive charts and tables as a natural extension of your data analysis. Embed canvas nodes into your internal data apps, or draw a frame around part of your canvas to generate a tidy dashboard view. Learn more: buff.ly/Bw8nukG

My most popular interactive @observablehq.com notebook, Math for Journalists, just got a fresh update! 🧑‍🎓 👉 Sample size and confidence: I explain how sample sizes work, like in a survey. 👉 Tests for statistical significance: I break down what "statistically significant" means. Link in comments! 👇

In Observable Canvases, we’re putting advanced, interactive charts at your fingertips. Make Sankey diagrams, beeswarm charts, arc maps, bump charts, and more in just a few clicks. Learn how canvases streamline data visualization and analysis: buff.ly/ATVg0sw

Observable Canvases just got a major upgrade. Join our live webinar on September 4 at 10 AM PT to learn about new chart types, extended sharing options including quick embeds, improved workspace permissions, and more: buff.ly/QPox1Oj

Observable Notebook Kit and Desktop 1.1 are out. Headline feature: database connectors! 🎉 You can now query DuckDB, SQLite, Postgres, and Snowflake directly from notebooks. And it’s self-hosted. And it saves results automatically for performance and stable analysis. observablehq.com/notebook-kit...

📣 Today we’re announcing big updates in Observable Canvases. Learn about our growing suite of built-in, interactive charts (Sankey diagrams, arc maps, beeswarms + more), new embeds and dashboards for fast sharing, added Postgres and Databricks support, and more:

A little demo of reactive SQL in Observable Notebooks 2.0, first using (native) DuckDB to bake data from a remote source, followed by DuckDB-Wasm to create and query reactive views in the client. Should be released this week!

Grid cartograms trade realistic geospatial borders for geometric tiles that make small regions visible, and values more easily comparable. Read our new blog post for grid cartogram essentials, examples, pros/cons, and resources on how to build your own in Observable: buff.ly/HRj56yz

AI adoption doesn’t have to be top-down. At Observable, we’re supporting our team to explore and use AI tools in ways that work for them. The result? A culture where AI feels natural and useful, not forced. 👉 Learn how our team at Observable boosted AI adoption: buff.ly/t0J92IN

AI can speed up steps in throughout data analysis from initial data profiling to final chart development. For exploratory analysis, use AI to summarize database schemas and contents, automate tedious data wrangling tasks, and draft new charts. Learn more: buff.ly/5DzuzZ7

Notebooks 2.0 is here! 📓🔮 Previewing today:
Notebook Kit, an open file format for notebooks with open-source tooling for generating static sites; and
Observable Desktop, a macOS desktop application for editing notebooks as local files, with a radical new approach to AI. observablehq.com/notebooks/2/

In Observable Canvases, AI is transparent and verifiable, so you can confidently use it throughout your data analysis lifecycle. Discover how AI streamlines data exploration by accelerating data profiling, automating data wrangling, and drafting interactive charts:

Speaking with customers, I have been fascinated by the failed promise self-serve analytics. In this post, I will explain the challenges and offer an alternative solution that actually works #dataviz #datavisualization #team-datafam @observablehq.com observablehq.com/blog/the-fai...

AI can fast-track your data analysis, but only if you can trust its outputs. In Observable Canvases, you can see, verify, and interpret AI outputs every step of the way. Learn how our transparent AI gets you from messy tables to trusted insights, faster: buff.ly/B3H8cSG

AI in Observable Canvases is transparent, so you can boost your data analysis while maintaining confidence in the results. We expose the logic and code at each step for AI outputs that you can immediately verify, and more easily interpret. Learn how we’re doing AI differently:

Big data usually means slow charts, but not in Observable Canvases. Our optimized queries power fast, interactive visualizations so you can explore more, and wait less, to find insights faster. Learn how we keep charts fast, even with big data: buff.ly/eOSF8Vt

The hardest part about reusing charts can be getting your data into the expected shape. Learn common data formats consumed by Plot & D3 — and how to transform your data to match — so you can quickly reuse thousands of stunning, interactive visualizations: buff.ly/rJaX6pT

When working with big data for BI, data visualizations can be painfully slow to load. That stifles exploration and iteration, which means you might be missing out on business insights. In our new post, learn how we keep charts fast in Observable Canvases:

Histograms are incredibly useful, interpretable, and common in BI. But building histograms that work well out of the box — no matter the data — is trickier than it sounds. We share some of the challenges faced, and decisions made, when designing histograms for Observable Canvases: