Incorporating data viz into your data analysis workflow no longer requires a lot of difficult toil or time spent writing and rewriting and then rewriting code again. Now, developers can go from data to visualization even faster with Chart cell, Observable’s latest feature. Chart cell is a new cell type that intelligently creates visualizations based on the data you’ve selected, so you can explore data visually — without writing a line of code.

You can now spend fewer cycles manipulating charts and visualizations, saving their time for higher-level tasks. This is because Chart cell allows you to incorporate charts into your data analysis workflow, visually explore your data, and quickly uncover insights along the way.

The old way of creating data viz is broken

Far too often, building visualizations to accompany your data analysis workflow is tedious. You must know how you want to present your data before you write the code to create the visualization. If you need to tinker with the visualization, you have to write more code. Receive feedback from a colleague that you need to incorporate? Yep, more code.

Engineering hours are expensive. And, while back-and-forth code iterations can lead to beautiful, bespoke visualizations, it’s a slow, costly way to work. Chart cell accelerates this workflow by intelligently building a visualization based on the data you’ve selected, without requiring you to write code — or even know JavaScript. As a result, you can riff on your data and discover other ways of presenting it without sinking extra time and effort into your exploration.

See how Chart cell works.

A more visual approach to data analysis

With Chart cell, the data analysis workflow becomes more visual and allows you to test and experiment with chart types on-the-fly. You no longer need to come to Observable with a preconceived notion of the chart you want to create. Instead, you can use Chart cell to create a simple chart based on the data source and columns that you select.

Perhaps you realize once you see your chart that the data you selected wasn’t quite right. You can quickly filter to precisely the right data by changing your selections in the Data Table cell. Chart cell will update your charts accordingly.

Once you see your data visually, you might decide that you want to change how you represent the data. For instance, perhaps you want to change the mark. Chart cell supports a variety of marks, including dot, bar, line, area, and rule. You can also override automatic channels, such as color or size, to more clearly communicate information. Or, add facets to view charts side by side. Again, Chart cell will dynamically make these changes based on your selections without requiring you to write a single line of code.

Since Chart cell doesn’t require any knowledge of JavaScript, Observable Plot, or even Observable, it also empowers non-technical users to participate in the data analysis workflow. This means that you can more easily collaborate with stakeholders and iterate on your data together.

“While an advanced user might prefer to work directly with the code, we’ve found that interactive tools such as Chart cell make it much easier for those who are just getting started with Observable.” - Paulino Oliveira, CEO and Founder, Belo Investment Research

Accelerate your time to “aha!”

By speeding up the time it takes to create data viz, Chart cell can help you discover insights much more quickly. While there still may be times when you want to build a complex, coded visualization, this approach isn’t necessary to find the “aha!” moment that’s hiding in your data. Additionally, Chart cell allows you to create those bespoke data visualizations more confidently and with fewer review cycles.

See how fast you can go from data to viz with Chart cell. To get started with this feature, log in to Observable or sign up for an account today.