I’ve enjoyed exploring interactive data visualization projects found on sites like The Pudding for years now. I fiddled with Flash and ActionScript (dating myself!?) back in the day and built a few decent projects that I’ll probably never be able to see again. I have .flv and .swf files that are just relics now. I have missed the user interactivity that you could quickly build in Flash/ActionScript and D3/JavaScript seem to be the tools that get you closest to that experience now on the modern web. I had to at least give it a shot. So, I took a semester of from the analytics program to try to develop my javascript skills and explore D3. A steep learning curve was what I heard and it was that and much more.

I started off strong and bought the book, Interactive Data Visualization for the Web and bookmarked Amanda Wattenberger’s, How to learn D3.js site which is super helpful and exquisitely done. It was, no doubt, a learning curve! That much code for a simple bar graph! Nevertheless, I continued. I built a simple bar chart but not much more for now.

I also signed up for the six-week free Javascript Bootcamp via FreeCodeCamp. I went strong for the first few weeks but then other commitments derailed me and I wasn’t sure I was progressing in my D3 journey. I did, however, finally finish the JavaScript Essential Training course!

At this point, I would definitely love to continue my JavaScript and D3 learning journey, however, with a full-time job and a child at home, my time commitment is limited to a few hours in the evenings and weekends. For this reason, I need to prioritize the path where I’ve already made an investment of time and money and get back to my analytics program. Next semester, it’s on to Data Analytics II and Discovery and Learning with Big Data!