GEPS 030: New Visualization Techniques

The purpose of this GEP is to discuss new visualization techniques for possible inclusion in Gramps.

Background

Fan Chart

At present Gramps offers two graphical visualizations of genealogical data as views:

• Pedigree View (Classic family tree)
• Fan chart

20120909 - Updated for unreleased Gramps 4.0, see Blog Report 1 Blog Report 2 & Video Demonstration: Reference paper

Some Addons:

• TimelinePedigreeView
• GraphViz and Goocanvas: Graph View

A number of graphical and GraphViz based reports for printout:

• Classic family tree(s)
  • Ancestor Tree
  • Descendant Tree
  • Family Descendant Tree
• GraphViz based
  • Family Lines Graph
  • Hourglass Graph
  • Relationship Graph
• Addons
  • InformationGraph (Gramps 3.2.x, GraphViz based)
  • DenominoViso
  • Family Tree
• "Non-standards" Addons
  • Filtered Reports
  • DescendantsLines

As well as a graphical default gramplets:

• Fan Chart Gramplet
• "Textual bloc/area/tree informations" gramplets

In the last few years papers have been published describing new visualization techniques.

Quilts

Quilt

Family trees are presented in the form of a grid.

Feature request "4649: GeneaQuilts visualization integration" asks for this functionality.

A video, demonstration software, and a paper describing the technique can be found on the Aviz website.

Status: A Gramps implementation is currently being written (Nick Hall)

TimeNets

TimeNet

This is a type of timeline tree.

Wilfried Trabold pointed this out on the gramps-users mailing list in December 2010. Gerald was in a side-discussion with the authors to explore the possibility of working together to include this in Gramps.

Status: Not known.

Dual Trees

Dual Trees

This is a method of combining graphs in a single display.

• Bi-directional top-down node-link diagrams
• Used for navigating genealogical graphs (family “trees”)

Status: Unexplored.

The H-Tree

The H-tree

A structured, space-efficient technique for pedigree visualization (to display ancestral trees).

Status: 6389 Working trial for Gramps 3.4.2 windows portable

Trial 31 person (5 generation) H-tree on Gramps 3.4.2

The Gene-Tree

The gene-tree (Cranefoot)

A structured, space-efficient technique for pedigree visualization (to display ancestral trees), using colors and symbols. This type of tree is often used for medical usage.

Status: Unexplored.

See also:

• Genetics
• Cranefoot
• Genogram

References

• Visualization in Genealogical Data (Jesus Miguel de la Fuente)
• GeneaQuilts project
• GeneaQuilts: A System for Exploring Large Genealogies (A. Bezerianos, P. Dragicevic, J.-D. Fekete, J. Bae, B. Watson)
• A list of publications relating to Quilts
• Tracing Genealogical Data with TimeNets (Nam Wook Kim, Stuart K. Card, Jeffrey Heer)
• Family Tree Visualization
• Rhizome Navigation - used to create animated visualizations of large genealogy data sets.
• Geospatial Genealogy: Visualizing and Exploring Ancestral Place
• large-scale genealogical history
• The H-Tree, PEDVIS: A structured, space-efficient technique for pedigree visualization
• Pedigree and mathematics (in french)

Feature Requests

• 4649: GeneaQuilts visualization integration
• 2611: Alternative Genealogy Graphs - Original idea for Fan Chart, Dual Trees, and other ideas
• 4169: To generate a numbering class for mapping indiviuals according to start person (temp snapshot) and for generating Pedigrees, Charts, Gramplets, Tools with duplicated ancestors match support.
• 815: I would like to have a graphical view of relationships
• 6048: Descendants View, a "reverse" Pedigree
• 3590: Relationships domain
• 4564: Ancestor Medical Record
• 2218: Medical genetics
• 6486: When first cousins marry
• 2266: Different modes in Pedigree view
• Alternate FanChart [1]