The Contextual Family Tree (CFT)
Visualization Design
Supplemental
material for the paper:
Borges, J. (2019). A contextual family tree visualization
design. Information Visualization. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473871619845095
A Contextual Family Tree is a new visualization design for family
trees that represents individuals and their spouses with enhanced
details about their families' context.
In particular, the design aims to enhance the visual analysis of:
the longevity of an individual and how it compares to his spouse;
the size of nuclear families and the order in which the direct
ancestors were born in comparison to their siblings; identify
individuals that are repeated in the tree.
An example CFT for an hypothetical family
Below, we give an example of a Contextual Family Tree created
to
illustrate the main characteristics of the visualization design.
A complete description of the design definition is provided in the
published paper.
In brief, James Smith and Mary Johnson are the root couple. Their
boxes
are temporally aligned revealing that he was older than his wife
but
died before her, in 1980. In fact, she is still alive at the time
of
the creation of the plot, a detail that is revealed by the absence
of
the label "d.". The double-ring symbol indicates that they married
and
the horizontal line that the wedding date is known.
They have three children, of whom only the elder one, the only
male,
have descendants. James is the second among three children while
Mary
is the sixth and youngest child.
Mary's parents were divorced (indicated by the crossed
double-ring)
although in an unknown date (indicated by the absence of an
horizontal
line). Their dates of death of are unknown (indicated by the
dotted
representation on the bottom edges of the boxes).
Their grandfather, Albert Smith, married twice. First, he married
Nancy White from whom he had three children, two of them reached
adulthood
and had descendants. The youngest one is John Smith, the father of
James Smith. Nancy died early and Albert married a second time,
this
time with Lisa Wilson, Mary Johnson's grandmother. They had two
children that reached adulthood and the elder one is Mary's
mother. In
addition, James' mother and Mary's father are siblings as they
both descend from Robert Johnson and Margaret Brown, who had children
without being married (indicated by the absence of the
double-ring).
Other examples created from GEDCOM files available on the web
Plots built from the Royal92.ged
(from webtreeprint)
file that features the Kings and Queens of Europe, including
Great Britain. Published back in 1992 by Denis R. Reid.
The Contextual Family Tree for Queen
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Mountbatten
The Contextual Family Tree for Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert
The Contextual Family Tree for Juan
Carlos I of Spain and his wife Sophia
The Contextual Family Tree for the parents of the
president George
Washington
Plots built from the Pres.ged
file that provides a collection of the presidents of the US,
with their ancestors and descendants (from famousfamilytrees.blogspot.com)
