Closing remarks on visualizations

It should be clear by now that once we have our data models in a Graph Database Management System like Neo4j, one of the great potential use cases for that system is tightly coupled to visualization capabilities. It is amazing what we can learn from visualizations, but we do want to point out two caveats that you should always be keeping in mind as you engage in a visualization project.

The "fireworks" effect

While graph visualizations usually have a very positive effect on its users, we—as IT people that are provided this as an interface to interact with data—must also be aware of the fact that these visualizations can be a bit too much sometimes. We call that the "fireworks" effect, and while by no means specific to graph visualizations, it is an important thing to be aware of. The purpose of visualization can never be to attract oooohs and aaaahs—that's what fireworks are supposed to do for the crowds of spectators that they attract. Contrarily, the purpose...