Building a Data Dashboard with Astrato: Getting Started

At Astrato, we talk a lot about insights and dashboards and making the most of your data, but how do you actually do that? In this blog, we’ve put together a list of practical guidance for first-time ‘ASTRATOnauts’ who are looking to make their first workbook (you might call it a ‘dashboard’!) with Astrato, or veterans in need of a refresh.

Before you begin, consider the big picture

It can be tempting to jump right in and start extracting insights ASAP, but it’s important to consider the bigger picture first. To ensure your insights are as relevant and effective as possible, you need to start with a clear understanding of your data and what you want to achieve with it. 

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself before you even set up your account:

• Who will be using this dashboard? How can I make this dashboard as easy to use as possible for them?
• What problem am I trying to solve? Is there a particular metric that matters the most?
• What decisions do you need to make? What insights might help make them?
• Do I have the right data to answer the question and make a decision? Do you need to clean or transform the data?

Once you have these questions answered, you are ready to start building, reporting and making informed decisions with your data analytics! 

Three steps to brilliant data visualizations

1. Create an account and familiarize yourself with the landing page

The first step is to set up your account and make sure you are comfortable navigating the main landing page. Understanding where everything sits and where each button leads will make your dashboarding experience even more seamless.

We’ve made setting up an account as easy as possible – have a look at our Getting started with Astrato page for step-by-step guidance, including videos and screenshots so you know exactly what to do.

Now, let’s have a look at the landing page. The Astrato landing page differs depending on what type of user account you have, with administrator accounts having additional privileges. All users, however, will find: 

• Navigation at the workspace level on the left of the page
• Your user ID on the top right, alongside the option to log out of Astrato
• The content area, displaying your Workbooks and the chat icon – to search the help pages and chat with our Support team

We have built the Astrato landing page to be as intuitive as possible, but you can visit our Navigating the Astrato Workspace page for more detailed information.

2. Create a workbook and connect to your data

Creating a workbook in Astrato is incredibly easy. You just need to open the Workbooks page in the workspace, and click the Create Workbook button – highlighted in the figure below.

Then, connect to your data source by clicking ‘Data’ on the sidebar of the Astrato Homepage. 

This allows you to create a new data source connection or a new data view from a source already added. Click on the Data Source tab, and click the button (+) New Data Source and select the data source you want to connect to. 

In the Help Centre, you can find out how to connect to each type of data source, including instructions for Snowflake, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, and Dremio Cloud (Beta). We also have a demo data connection that’s great for those who are practicing or just waiting for their source to connect and want to get ahead of the game.

With your data connected, you’re almost there!

3. Customize your data with the Astrato Data View Editor

Before you start visualizing, you want to make sure your data is in the right format for the insights you want to gain. You might have simple data – one table, or tables that don’t need to be connected, or data that is ready with no need to add more measures. If that is the case, then you can skip this step.

However, if you need to edit your data then Astrato’s Data View Editor has a range of intuitive capabilities to help you. With the Data View Editor you can select your data, and add customized SQL, fields, dimensions, and measures in your Astrato workbooks. 

The above image is just a snapshot of what’s possible – visit the Data View Editor page in the Help Centre for a breakdown of the steps.

Get inspired and start creating impactful dashboard visualizations, today!

With your data where and how you want it, you’re now ready to start choosing your layout, creating your charts, spotting trends and collecting insights. Click here to get started with Astrato, or read about our latest feature, Custom Report, which allows Business Users to slice-and-dice live Snowflake data and extract insights with ease.

Looking for some dashboard and visualization inspiration? Have a browse of our gallery of eye-catching workbooks – including workbooks on Elon Musk, the Tour de France, and COVID-19 gender equality – or visit our community forum, Astrato Galaxy, to connect with other ASTRATOnauts!