One of the requirements detailed above was the ability to easily find individuals within the database. Our family tree has many examples of cousins of the same name who were born at about the same time. The only way to tell them apart is from the context i.e. their parents, grandparents etc. For this reason and for clarity we decided to base the user interface around an ancestral tree display. Geni reproduces faithfully the information given to it.
Users can navigate around the tree using a few easy to remember keypresses.
In the case of more than one possible target individual, for example in the case of spouses or children, a scrolling list is displayed from which the user can select the person of interest. An example is shown below. Pressing the TAB key switches to the other scrolling list. So far we have described how users of the program can navigate around a family tree using simple keystrokes. Users can also search for individuals whose names match a specified search expression.