welcome
Thank you for purchasing the MEAP for D3.js in Action, Third Edition. D3, introduced in 2011 by Mike Bostock, literally changed the face of web-based data visualizations and opened the door to unprecedented possibilities. It set new standards upon what the readers of online visualizations expect in terms of interactivity and level of refinement.
When I first came across D3 visualizations that were not only informative but quite frankly captivating, I immediately wanted to learn how to do similar work. The journey was not all roses and unicorns, D3 being infamous for its steep learning curve, but as I built stuff and solved bugs, the key D3 concepts started to make sense. Today, I am convinced that if these fundamental concepts are learned strategically, D3 is not that hard to understand and can even become quite intuitive.
By learning D3, you are setting yourself up to create almost any data-bound graphics that you can imagine, from traditional graphs to intricate maps and networks to stunning scrollytelling animated projects. Today, even given the impressive amount of data visualization libraries available, learning D3 is a wise choice that will provide you with complete creative and technical freedom over your data visualization projects.