Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

October 25, 2014

Data Visualization with JavaScript

Filed under: Javascript,Visualization — Patrick Durusau @ 6:08 pm

Data Visualization with JavaScript by Stephen A. Thomas.

From the introduction:

It’s getting hard to ignore the importance of data in our lives. Data is critical to the largest social organizations in human history. It can affect even the least consequential of our everyday decisions. And its collection has widespread geopolitical implications. Yet it also seems to be getting easier to ignore the data itself. One estimate suggests that 99.5% of the data our systems collect goes to waste. No one ever analyzes it effectively.

Data visualization is a tool that addresses this gap.

Effective visualizations clarify; they transform collections of abstract artifacts (otherwise known as numbers) into shapes and forms that viewers quickly grasp and understand. The best visualizations, in fact, impart this understanding subconsciously. Viewers comprehend the data immediately—without thinking. Such presentations free the viewer to more fully consider the implications of the data: the stories it tells, the insights it reveals, or even the warnings it offers. That, of course, defines the best kind of communication.

If you’re developing web sites or web applications today, there’s a good chance you have data to communicate, and that data may be begging for a good visualization. But how do you know what kind of visualization is appropriate? And, even more importantly, how do you actually create one? Answers to those very questions are the core of this book. In the chapters that follow, we explore dozens of different visualizations and visualization techniques and tool kits. Each example discusses the appropriateness of the visualization (and suggests possible alternatives) and provides step-by-step instructions for including the visualization in your own web pages.

To give you a better idea of what to expect from the book, here’s a quick description of what the book is, and what it is not.

The book is a sub-part of http://jsdatav.is/ where Stephen maintains his blog, listing of talks and a link to his twitter account.

If you are interested in data visualization with JavaScript, this should be on a short list of bookmarks.

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