A Highly Interactive Pedigree Viewer

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Barnaby Turner
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1 A Highly Intertive Pedigree Viewer Joe Mrtel, Json Butterfield, Grnt Skousen, Dn Lwyer, Judy Rie Fmily nd Churh History Deprtment Astrt Viewing lrge mounts of pedigree fmily tree dt n e hllenge. Mny urrent softwre viewers fore users to see only portion of the tree through strw. These trees lso hve miniml intertion with the user, sve nvigtion. The pedigree hrt is entrl nvigtionl interfe in most genelogil pplitions. Beuse of this, it is ritil tht new pedigree viewer e exeptionlly intuitive to users. This pper desries methodology tht overomes these issues y providing: (i) novel visuliztion of the tree tht ompresses spe nd llows dynmi genertion-stk positioning to visulize muh more of the tree within sreen; (ii) highly dynmi nd rih intertive user interfe; (iii) development proess whih filittes erly nd ongoing user intertion nd feedk. This methodology hs een implemented nd deployed s rih-ui we-sed tool t 1. Seeing Reltionships - The Chllenge of the Pedigree Viewer People involved in genelogy need to e le to visulize the dt ontined in their pedigrees. However, s the pedigrees grow nd ontin hundreds of nmes nd mny genertions, the prolems of visuliztion eome omplex. In the pst, we hve relied on printing pedigree hrts on pper. While pper hs generlly een esily ville, there re serious limittions in its use. Lrge hrts require speil printing nd delivery with ssoited inresed osts. One hrt is printed, it is stti nd needs to e reprinted s reserh progresses. Tody we re relying on omputers for genelogy tools nd shifting the visuliztion to eletroni medium. A omputer sreen, even the lrge high resolution displys, nnot mth the detil nd sheer size of sy 4 foot y 6 foot print out. The sreen is onstrined y physis, disply resolutions nd ost. Yet it is on the omputer tht we must visulize the pedigree. The pedigree hrt is powerful visuliztion nd method to nvigte to desired fmily or individul: the pedigree hrt provides the ruil reltionship informtion to sertin if you re looking t the orret John Smith. Only then, hving hosen the orret trget individul, n the user selet n individul nd perform tions, like orreting nd extending the pedigree. F M Figure 1. Blok lyout of pedigree hrt

2 Pedigrees re typilly visulized using lok lyout view (Figure 1). For instne, s you sn down pedigree hrt, with genertions left to right, the lok of individuls on the left horizontlly ligns with the next genertion lok to the right. As the numer of genertions inrese the spe etween the fther nd mother in the erlier genertion doules. This mkes it inresingly diffiult to see reltionships ross inresing genertion spns. Mny pplitions del with this prolem y limiting the numer of genertions simultneously visulized, usully three to five genertions nd then srolling though this viewport (Figure ). The effet is like looking through strw. The user n not see their tree in entirety. These visuliztion prolems re exggerted when viewing desendnt Figure. Only 5 genertions visile in PAF, (Version Intelletul Reserve, In.) view. For exmple, n nestor view is typilly n n-squred prolem: eh dded genertion doules the numer of prents. However, for desendnt view this eomes n n to the power of m prolem: where m is the numer of hildren. Thus the ore pedigree visuliztion prolems re: The visuliztion of the pedigree is onstrined y urrent thinking Rel world ftors like sreen size nd resolution Reltionships re osured s fthers nd mothers eome further prt s the numer of genertions inrese Context is lost s only limited numer of genertions is displyed Not eing le to see the entire 30,000 foot view of lrge pedigrees A seond set of ftors ome into ply s we disuss wht is neessry to rete well-designed pedigree viewer. We need to provide the user with tools nd guides to omplish rowsing nd ontriutory tsks: Aility to see nd distinguish detils of n individul, suh s vitl events of irth, mrrige nd deth Be le to see terminting (ded-end) rnh, identifying res where they n extend the tree with dditionl reserh Intert with the tree to see lternte spouses Alter the type of tree view, whether nestor nd desendnt view Aville on widely essile tehnology pltform Provide n intuitive user interfe nd usility to wide experiene-level udiene

3 . The Dynmi Compressed Pedigree Visuliztion Method There re numer of wys to visulize lrge mount of pedigree informtion. They eh hve dvntges nd disdvntges. Most re trditionl -dimensionl lok solutions. The - dimensionl views re perhps more fmilir nd intuitive to users thn other unique pprohes like rottionl (pie) representtions. We foused on -dimensionl pproh. Figure 3. Stk in lok lyout Figure 4. Compressed nd ligned lyout Our solution involves onsidering the view from more relxed methodology. Still in - dimensionl pproh, rther thn lok lyout the view, we onsider eh genertion stk (Figure 3). This stk is independently djustle from neighoring stk. This ffords us (the softwre lgorithm) the ility to ollpse or ompress the sping of the individuls in the stk. In this view, note how the fther nd mother re immeditely djent the hild, irrespetive of whih genertion you re foused on (Figure 4). Furthermore, this djent proximity nture stys fixed regrdless of how mny genertions re eing displyed. If Figure 3 hd to e printed on multiple sheets it is likely tht the ouples of the leftmost genertions would e printed fr prt, on different sheets, wheres in Figure 4 the ouple would likely e djent. An dded feture of the ompressed, independent vertil plement of the stk is tht depending on where the user is foused the stks n re-lign. This keeps the pproprite reltionships in the neighoring genertions in djent horizontl lignment. Coupled with this

4 intertive pproh the user is le to fous on res of interest in the pedigree, nd the tree n oth lign nd highlight this line in the pedigree hrt (Figure 5). Highlighting the pedigree line is useful in ommuniting the onept of reltionship etween individuls who re seprted y ny numer of genertions. Zooming (sle) is supported to see more detil. Pnning (trnslte) the tree is omplished y drgging to point of interest similr to mny mpsed produts like Google Erth. Seeing the entire pedigree is now possile nd intriguing (Figure 6). There re numer of other visuliztions nd visul lues tht llow for: Expnding person to see detil like vitls Hinting of multiple spouses Re-displying the pedigree sed on different spouse Seeing ded-end, terminting lines Re-displying the pedigree to see n Anestor or Desendnt visuliztion Figure 5. Relignment nd highlighting sed on Fous Figure 6. Whole pedigree view of 45 genertions, 108 individuls

5 3. Rih User Interfe nd Usility The novel pproh of this new pedigree visuliztion nd funtionlity is powerful. However, if the user interfe (UI) were umersome users would e unle to disover nd utilize its potentil. Furthermore some users re more omputer-svvy thn others. The ore non-funtionl requirements were rih, esy to use user interfe. Additionlly this should e omplished with miniml impt to the user s omputer environment. The downlod should e semless, nd the pedigree viewer tool should e ville on the host of pltforms (Windows, M, nd Linux), rowsers (Firefox, Sfri, nd Internet Explorer), nd their respetive versions. With requirements set we hose frmework to support those requirements. Rih UI, nd We.0 pplitions re inresingly eoming prominent on the Internet. Dynmi HTML, Ajx, nd similr tehnologies were onsidered. We hose the Adoe Flex.0 environment. Adoe s Flsh Plyer is uiquitous with over 98% penetrtion ( plyer_ensus/flshplyer/version_penetrtion.html). Sine the pplition runs in the Flsh Plyer ontiner, we only hve to test it in tht ontext nd do not hve to test it in every pltform nd rowser version omintion. It hs len nd useful UI filitting the potentil for rih UI experiene. To hieve highly intertive UI, nimtion eomes ritil piee of the user experiene. It is instrumentl t onveying nd providing point of referene for the user nd then trnsitioning to new perspetive. For exmple, when the user flips from Anestor to Desendnt view the trnsition first lingers over the person of fous, providing point of referene. Then the old perspetive fdes out nd the new perspetive fdes in. Flsh/Flex is rih visul presenttion nd ffords the engineering effort huge opportunity to rpidly rete rihly intertive wesites. 4. Quik Engineering Deliveries nd User Feedk Our gol ws Ls -qulity prototype in 6 weeks. The funtionlity nd usility of the pedigree viewer produt would lso e hevily influened y user feedk. This omponent would e integrted into future produts. We lunhed nd relesed the site nd Pedigree Viewer 3 weeks fter the ide ws oneived. Projet itertions rolled out rnging from twie week to one every weeks, depending on the nture of the enhnements. Design nd engineering ourred in prllel in rpid-agile environment. Our tem onsisted of softwre engineers, prt-time humn ftor engineers nd 1 produt mnger. With suh rpid design nd engineering yle, we were le to test ides in rpid suession. After n itertion of engineering nd light-weight qulity ssurne testing, we would deploy to the wesite nd within hours we would reeive feedk from users regrding the site, the new fetures, nd requests for enhnements. Some of our ides were dumped fter one pss in front of users. We hd little invested. Some ides fored re-ftoring of the ode. We did this only fter we knew the ore onept ws suessful, uilding on suess fter user vlidtion.

6 5. Future Overll the FmilySerhLs Pedigree Viewer hieved the gols, proving: 1. The novel Pedigree Viewer visuliztion ws extremely funtionl in onveying reltionships nd ommuniting pedigree informtion. A rih UI with high user intertion provides for quik response nd rewrding experiene with the pplition 3. Rpid itertions nd user feedk ws ritil to dvning the funtionlity nd usility spets of the viewer 4. Our venture into the new Flex/Flsh tehnology frmework ws rpid nd proved the ility to engineer nd modify the ode se There re numer of outstnding enhnements ontriuted within our orgniztion nd y the user ommunity. Some inlude: See more detils of person, like ffilitions nd demogrphi ssoitions, ompleteness of individul dt, or reliility of soure. UI Color oding nd filters ould e utilized to visulize suh ttriutes Provide guides nd rules suh s genertion, time nd ple ssoitions of the individuls Leverge the Pedigree Viewer s selet nd lunhing tool for other omponents tht llow for extending the pedigree nd enhning individul informtion Provide desktop lient version

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