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User documentation
The core functionality of KMAP is to integrate graph databases, visualize the graph data in a modular dashboard, and explore the data with a no-code query builder. It is suitable for companies of any sector used by the employees searching for insights about their own or related industries. The no-code solution facilitates business users with no programming experience to query the company's modular graph database. KMAP's visualizations can be directly used for management reporting. An outstanding feature of KMAP is its possibility to quickly swap between graph databases.
After collaboratively connecting the database together with KMAP's customer support, the software is ready to use. All functionalities can be reached through the graphical user interface.
The purpose of KMAP's landing page is to give the user a quick overview of the software's core functionalities. Besides a short description of KMAP's mission, the user can also access a brief tutorial video by clicking the "Take a Tour" - button. Using the side menu, one can navigate through the main pages of the software to move on from one feature to another.
Users that are not yet familiar with the software should start their experience of KMAP on the exploration page. This step-by-step questionnaire helps to intuitively find the best fitting visualization option for different purposes. The only thing the user needs to do, is answer one or all of the below questions. Scores for each visualization will be calculated in the background leading to a recommendation, which can be found on the right side of the page. The most suitable recommendation will be displayed at the top of the preview.
"Does one of these use cases match your question?"
This question targets the general purpose of the user's visit of KMAP by proposing specific use cases.
"Which mental image best fits your question?"
With this, KMAP creates different metaphors for various use cases. In most cases, when looking for a data visualization people will have a mental image of how the output should look.
"What best describes your question? / What solution are you expecting?"
If the user already has a concrete idea of what they are aiming to get out of their query, this question offers a description of the available visualizations.
"What kind of data is interesting to you?"
With this question, KMAP collects anonymous data from their users to implement an intelligent recommendation system in the future. If the user does not want to contribute to further development of KMAP, they can of course choose to leave this question empty.
The search bar works with a drop-down auto-complete function, enabling the user to look up data without knowing the exact syntax of their search query. Within the search function, the user can look for nodes, edges and classes. When selecting the desired result from the drop-down menu, the respective node, edge or class will be highlighted in the current visualization and detailed information will be displayed on the left hand side.
On this subpage you can find pre-programmed visualization options for your graph database. By simply clicking on one of the options, the user will be redirected to the respective visualization. Alternatively, the user can navigate through the options using the tabs at the upper end of the screen. It is important to note, that filters applied to one will be consistent throughout all visualization options (not including insight visualizations). This means the user doesn't have to immediately chose one, but can rather browse through KMAP's offers to find the visualization suitable for them.
In this 2D network-based visualization, the user gets an overview over the nodes of their graph database and the relationships (edges). This visualization minimizes link crossing and provides the user with substitute nodes, to connect all edges selected in the filter.
In this 2D tree-based visualization, one can better understand the main direction of the directed graph. The nodes of the graph are placed in hierarchical layers so that the edges of the graph show the same overall orientation.
In this visualization focused on centralities, the user can see how much a given node is in-between others. This is an interesting information to e.g. identify bottlenecks and important players in the network.
In this 2D radial tree-based visualization, nodes are arranged in concentric circles around the original subject in a radial tree. Each generation of nodes becomes a new orbit extending outwards, showing a dependency chain.
In this visualization, one can get database insights. The user can investigate the graph that represents the labels and relationship-types available in their database and how they are connected.
In this visualization, the user can get aggregate information about the relationships in the database. The diagram represents flows or connections between several entities. Each entity is represented by a fragment on the outer part of the circular layout. The size of the arc, drawn between entities, is proportional to the importance of the flow.
All visualization subpages are equipped with a filter menu for nodes and edges which enables the user to intuitively query the database. The filter menu can be accessed by clicking on the arrow in the top right corner of every subpage. The main functionality is to select relevant nodes and edges according to their attributes. Opening the filter menu for a specific type of node or edge, the user can select all instances that are relevant to their use case. Furthermore, the filter offers a slider that regulates the number of nodes or edges to be shown in the visualization. An important aspect of the filter menu is the "shortest path" - function. This allows the user to enter a start and end node. The software will then try to find the shortest connection between the two nodes. It might be the case that there is no path to be found, which will be communicated to the user in form of a warning message. The user then will have to adjust the filter setting by marking the checkbox "ignore edge directions". If the user wants to undo all of the adjusted changes in the filter menu, clicking the "reset"-button will automatically display the default settings.
This feature is currently available for the graph, hierarchies and chord diagram subpages. Upon clicking on a node or edge, the user can inspect details such as type(s) and properties in a pop-up window located in the top left corner of their screen. In the chord diagram, they can inspect the aggregate information of edges connecting different node types in the pop-up window.
A tabular representation of the connected graph database can be found on the subpage "Data". This page aims to give textual information about nodes and their attributes, as well as, relations. This way, the user can easily extract relevant data in a csv-format to later be used in management reports or further analysis. Integrated filter options help to only display information that is relevant to the user.