Collaboration is in the DNA of Observable, which is why we are excited to announce two new features that foster community and provide pathways for you to learn from other developers: following and notebook tagging.
Now, you can follow other data viz creators and teams on the platform, making it easier to keep tabs on inspiring content and notebooks you may want to fork in the future. And, with notebook tagging, you can quickly search for content that is most relevant to your work.
In Observable, building a new data visualization doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Our vibrant community is full of data viz work worth following, and with the ability to do just that, relevant notebooks are even easier to find and reference for future inspiration. Following users and teams on Observable helps you save and organize good ideas, and get a head start on building your next data visualization.
When you spend less time searching, you can spend more time crafting data visualizations. This is why you no longer need to waste time searching for content created by users and teams that have inspired you in the past. Instead, your homepage will populate with recent notebooks from accounts you follow. You can easily expand your network on Observable, and your ability to find fresh, interesting content, by seeing the users and teams that others follow. Following also keeps you up to date on your teammates and collaborators, so you can reduce your back and forth at work.
When you’re using data to understand a problem, it can be useful to see how other data practitioners have approached similar datasets or content areas. To see what other developers on our platform are creating with data, simply search for tags and Observable will show you a list of notebooks that have that tag.
Tags allow you to discover notebooks and topics that are of interest. For example, maybe you’re new to Observable and looking to up-level your skills. Try searching #gettingstarted to find guides, tutorials, and other resources. If you’re working on a Plot.geo data viz and want to see how others have tackled a similar challenge, check out #plot or #map. Looking to be inspired? Search #creativecoding.
This feature is optimized for content discovery, so when you click on a tag you can also see other notebooks with the same tag, allowing you to uncover insights and learn from even more developers. As with following, once you find a notebook that’s useful to your project at hand, simply fork it to get started on your own visualizations.
For teams that use Observable, tagging also makes it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for since you can use tags to organize notebooks by department, initiative, or project.
Collaboration doesn’t just occur between you and your direct teammates. Together, the developers on Observable build off of one another’s work and grow the data viz community. When you add tags to your notebooks, it allows others on our platform to easily discover your content, which both increases your own network and makes our entire community stronger.
Head to our documentation to learn more about how to follow other users and how to use tags. Both of these features were suggested in our feedback repo, so if you have ideas on how to improve Observable, please let us know.