Stephen A. Thomas specializes in frontend development at Georgia Tech's Department of Education Technology and has developed complex JavaScript visualizations for the health-care and security industries. He writes and speaks about data visualization in publications and at conferences around the world.

You've got data to communicate. But what kind of visualization do you choose, how do you build it, and how do you ensure that it's up to the demands of the Web?

In Data Visualization with JavaScript, you'll learn how to use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to build the most practical visualizations for your data. Step-by-step examples walk you through creating, integrating, and debugging different types of visualizations and will have you building basic visualizations, like bar, line, and scatter graphs, in no time.

Then you'll move on to more advanced topics, including how to:

Create tree maps, heat maps, network graphs, word clouds, and timelines

Map geographic data, and build sparklines and composite charts

Add interactivity and retrieve data with AJAX

Manage data in the browser and build data-driven web applications

Harness the power of the Flotr2, Flot, Chronoline.js, D3.js, Underscore.js, and Backbone.js libraries

If you already know your way around building a web page but aren't quite sure how to build a good visualization, Data Visualization with JavaScript will help you get your feet wet without throwing you into the deep end. Before you know it, you'll be well on your way to creating simple, powerful data visualizations.