GEPS 030: New Visualization Techniques

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

Contents

Background

Fan Chart

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

• Pedigree View (Classic family tree)
• Fan chart

And a number of graphical and GraphViz based reports for printout:

• Classic family tree(s)
  • Ancestor Tree
  • Descendant Tree
  • Family Descendant Tree
• GraphViz based
  • Relationship Graph
  • Family Lines Graph
  • Hourglass Graph
• Fan chart
• Timeline pedigree
• Non-standards Addons
  • DescendantsLines

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.

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.

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

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.