Understanding Data Visualization
Welcome to the Visualizing Graph Data using Aura Dashboards Fundamentals course on GraphAcademy!
Ever wondered how movie recommendation systems work, or how studios track which genres are trending?
Representing data in a visual format can help uncover patterns that might be missed otherwise.
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That’s the power of graph databases and data visualization!
By the end of this course, you will be confident in:
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What are Aura Dashboards and when to use them.
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Accessing Aura Dashboards by importing our sample data.
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Creating interactive dashboards using our GenAI assistant and natural language.
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Building dashboard cards with Cypher queries.
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Adding filters to make dashboards dynamic.
What you will need
To follow along with this course, you will need:
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A Neo4j Aura account. If you don’t have one, you can follow the step-by-step guide presented in the next lesson to create your account.
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Access to a Neo4j Aura instance.
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Basic understanding of Aura, graph databases, importing data (optional), data modeling, and Cypher query language (optional).
Also, if you are new to Neo4j, you can familiarize yourself with the database with the Neo4j Fundamentals course.
It would be recommended to also check out:
Introducing Neo4j Aura Dashboards
Aura provides a fully managed Neo4j database service, which means you don’t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure, maintenance, or operations.
In addition to the fully managed DBaaS (Database as a Service), you can also draw powerful dashboards to obtain insights from your graph data.
For example, if you are running a streaming service, you might want to track metrics such as ratings per country, genre, and actors to understand user engagement and preferences:
The picture below shows a sample dashboard that visualizes movie data from the popular movie graph dataset, sorted by decade, represented as a line chart:
To do this, you can use natural language to ask questions about your data, and Aura Dashboards will generate the necessary visualisations for you. Writing Cypher queries is not required, although you can use them if you prefer.
Use dashboards when you need:
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Visual representation of patterns and trends.
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Real-time data monitoring vs. static reports comparisons.
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Different stakeholders perspectives on the same data.
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Easy sharing of insights across teams.
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Interactive exploration of data without writing code.
You do not need to set up any additional infrastructure or tools, as Aura Dashboards are built on top of the Neo4j database service.
In this course, you will learn how to build dashboards similar to the one below:
![Aura dashboards][dashboards](images/dashboards.png)
Discussion question
If you ran a streaming service, what 3 metrics would you track on a dashboard to understand user engagement?
Check your understanding
Purpose of Aura Dashboards
Which of the following statements best describes the purpose of Aura’s integrated dashboard tool?
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✓ The integrated dashboard tool aims to provide a visual interface for exploring data insights directly within the Neo4j Aura environment without having to write Cypher queries.
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❏ The integrated dashboard tool is designed for database administrators to manage user roles and permissions.
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❏ The integrated dashboard tool is primarily used for importing large datasets into the Neo4j Aura database.
Hint
Think about the main goal of dashboards in data visualization and exploration.
Solution
The integrated dashboard tool aims to provide a visual interface for exploring data insights directly within the Neo4j Aura environment without having to write Cypher queries.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned what are the Neo4j Aura Dashboards and the benefits of using them for data visualisation and exploration.
In the next lesson, you will learn how to access Aura Dashboards, including creating an Aura account, selecting the appropriate tier, and navigating the Dashboards UI.