Talk Description: Data Visualization, aka "dataviz", is much more than drawing some pretty charts; it's a process of discovering & communicating insights derived from data. As software developers, we are luckily swimming in data about the apps we build, the users who interact with them, and the development workflows we use to build them. We may be used to looking at certain limited visualizations of that data - e.g. a simple line graph or bar chart presented by our analytics platform - but many developers don't realize that with very little time & effort, we can build our own visualizations to dig deeper and answer the specific questions that really matter to us and our work.In this workshop, through a hands-on project we'll learn how to use Observable (https://observablehq.com), a browser-based reactive coding platform, to rapidly build insightful, interactive visualizations in JavaScript. After completing this workshop, you'll have the basic tools & techniques you need to start using dataviz to better understand your code, your projects & your users, and make better data-driven decisions as a developer.

Speaker Bio: Anjana suffers from a chronic case of curiosity, which led her from philosophy to English teaching to computational linguistics to software development. As a developer advocate at Observable, these days she codes & teaches from her home base in San Francisco; in the before-times, you could find her speaking at events around the world. She loves to share the joy of programming and advocate for a more diverse, equitable, and ethical tech industry. Ask her about the Recurse Center & Outreachy, she’s an alumna of both!