I’ve recently learned some valuable skills, building upon previous knowledge in web development, by completing the Data Visualization Certification program offered by freeCodeCamp.

Data visualization is simply the visual representation of information, e.g., charts, graphs, tables, and so forth, which makes it easier for humans to interpret and reason about data in order to make informed decisions. For example, one might reasonably assume that the upward trend in GDP, which has lasted for over 65 years as demonstrated in the chart below, will likely continue to persist in the future:

Based on such a reasonable assumption, that the monetary value of goods and services produced by the United States will continue to grow, rational agents can make informed financial decisions, e.g., to hire employees, purchase a home, and so forth. Of course this could also be accomplished with raw data, but when data is presented in a visually engaging format, certain trends and patterns become much more apparent (and much more enjoyable to work with).

The certification program involved several different kinds of data visualization projects, which are available to view and fork on my CodePen profile:

• Bar Chart (displayed above)
• Heat Map
• Scatter Plot
• Choropleth Map
• Tree Map

While I’m by no means a D3 master at this point, the program did get me thoroughly acquainted with the D3 API, so that I have a solid understanding of the basics: setting up axes, scales, working with datasets, and rendering data with the SVG coordinate system. I am most grateful to freeCodeCamp for making these exercises available, so that I could become competent with this popular and useful JavaScript library in a relatively short period of time.

Knowledge is useless if it can’t be accessed, and through techniques like data visualization, information can be made much more accessible and digestible, so that it can become more widely useful. This is a valuable skill that I am excited to be learning.