Microsoft Office Delve - Boards

Microsoft very recently introduced a new feature to Office Delve called Boards.

Delve boards offer a very unique user experience when it comes to displaying information; knowing users’ context and how users’ are connected within an enterprise or in their networking.

Delve boards help us to group related information together and share with other users in a very simplistic manner. Every Delve card you see, shows a link at the bottom of your card. You can either create a new board or use existing boards to tag the Delve card.

Let me explain with an example, how boards help user to tag a content and organize the same as below,

Suppose as a SharePoint 2013 branding team member, I would like to organize all my documents related to SharePoint Branding including Case Studies, Branding artifacts along with best practices and guidelines. This way when I am looking at SharePoint 2013 Branding board, all the documents tagged as ‘SharePoint 2013 Branding’ will be shown regardless of their source. Remember, information is not tagged at the source but when it is shown under Delve.

Let me walk you through above example with Delve and Delve board. Assuming, I have already uploaded all my branding related information in a document library or similar information has been shared with me. Delve Cards are showing me all this information in a card based interface.

Launching a Delve

You can launch Delve from Office 365 App Launcher icon as shown below,

                                          Figure 1: Launching Office Delve

                                                Figure 2: Office Delve View

Creating a Delve board and tagging to the board

Every Delve card provides a link to create a new board or tag the current card with already created boards. Refer the following series of screens to get an idea of how a board can be created and Delve card can be tagged.

Figure 3: Series of screens showing a new delve board ‘SharePoint 2013 Branding’ creation from the card itself

The way in which we created a single board, we can also create multiple boards. These boards can be based on projects, technology or based on interest areas. And these Delve cards can be tagged for multiple boards and can be displayed under them respectively. To add a Delve card under multiple boards, use ‘+’ link shown beside existing board links.

Removing Delve information from a board

To remove tagged information from a specific board, just select the card from delve or from a board and right click on board name and select link ‘Remove from boards’. This will display ‘X’ icon, click on it to remove the information from the board.

Figure 4: Removing a tagged information from a board

Searching Delve Boards

When it comes to accessing boards within enterprise, boards are open to everyone within an enterprise. Users can see these boards and also contribute to them

Now if I would like to search all branding related information, I will use Search option as shown below. After searching, left navigation will show, Delve Boards meeting the criteria. You can now see ‘SharePoint 2013 Branding’ board link in left navigation.

      Figure 5: Boards list shown in left navigation and Search Results for matching criteria

Select ‘SharePoint 2013 Branding’ board from left navigation to display all the relevant information tagged for this board.

                              Figure 6: Information shown under selected board.

Sharing and Following a Delve Board

Every board can be searched and followed/unfollowed using ‘Follow’ or ‘Unfollow’ links. You can also share a link of entire board using ‘Send a link’ from the board itself.

                  Figure 7: SharePoint 2013 Branding board sharing and following.

Happy Delve boarding

This way we can create different boards based on technology, projects, and of interest areas or for ideas and concepts and share with our teams within enterprises for effective collaboration.

Although I am finding some similarities at concept level between Curah! and Delve Board, I am hoping a wonderful journey as we go on collaborating and discovering information across the enterprises who are on Office 365. So keep boarding the information and get the feel of Delve boards.