Genogram design ideas for a readable family diagram

The same family reads better once four things change

Both drawings hold the same twelve people, four couples and four sets of children. In the first, the rows drift up and down, so it is hard to tell who belongs to which generation. Claire stands on the far side of Marco from her own parents, so her parents’ line crosses his. Sara is drawn before her older brother, and two lines of occupation and education crowd every name.

The second drawing changes four things and nothing else. Each generation sits on one level row. Marco stands between his former wife Julia and his present wife Claire, so each couple line is short. The children hang from their own parents in birth order, oldest on the left. Each symbol has its name below and its years above, and nothing more.

Give each generation one row and keep the gaps even

A reader finds a generation by its height on the page, so a person drawn half a row too high looks like a different generation. Keep the gaps between people even within a row, and leave more room where a couple line or a sibling line needs to pass. White space between branches does the work that boxes and colours often try to do.

Fewer words under each symbol make the chart easier to read

Every line of text under a symbol pushes the next person further away or into the text of a neighbour. Write the name and the years on the chart, and add an occupation, a condition or a place only when the question the chart answers depends on it. A longer note belongs in a list beside the chart, or in the person’s own notes in the editor.

The key should list only what the chart uses and sit where the reader looks for it, under the drawing or beside it. In the editor, the What is written tab of View clears the label rows the reader does not need, and Arrange with Tidy straightens the rows and evens out the spacing in one step.

Match the genogram design to where it will be read

The best genogram design ideas depend on where the chart ends up. A class assignment is often printed in black and white, so a pattern that relies on two shades of red disappears. Use the shading of the notation, which still reads in grey, and put the key on the same page as the chart.

A clinical record is read in a hurry by someone who did not draw it. Keep it plain, date it, and leave out anything the reader does not need. The Clinical mode of the editor replaces names with numbers when the chart has to be shared without them.

A slide is read from across a room. Show three generations at most, raise the text size and cut the labels to names alone. The What is written tab sets the text size and can wrap long text, so the same chart can serve the page and the screen.

Creative genogram ideas still keep the standard symbols

A creative family genogram can use colour, hand lettering or a larger sheet of paper, and it still reads as a genogram as long as the squares, circles and lines keep their standard meaning. The table sets out ideas that work and the one rule each of them has to keep.

Eight case genograms apply the same choices to larger families

Large and well-known families test these ideas hardest, because they have remarriages, many children and branches that drift apart. The case guides draw each one in the same notation and explain the choices made. They cover the Madrigal family of Encanto, the Kennedy family, the families of Harry Potter, the Simpsons and Star Wars, the households of Modern Family, the houses of Game of Thrones and the Hoover family of Little Miss Sunshine.

For clinical and medical families drawn in the same calm style, browse the genogram examples and the templates.