There are a variety of minor tweaks that would make Gramps more friendly. Things that (probably) do not require significant code. Where do they fit in this discussion?
Dashboard
- replace the TopSurnames default dashboard gramplets
- Three column layout instead of 2 column. (With an empty center column to whet curiosity about why it is empty and invite a place to add a gramplet.)
Geography:
-
Rename view modes so that more than 3 labeled ones will fit on the Toolbar. (Probably needs consensus about verbiage.) Possible options:
- Personal tracks All known places for one Person
- Family tracks All known places for one Family
- Descendant tracks Every residence or move for person and their descendants
- Family proximity Would these two families been able to meet?
- Personal proximity Would they been able to meet?
- Plottable All known Places—coordinate-ready for plotting
- Event places All places related to Event Place
-
During install, add a Gramps User Directory
maps/fallbackset of custom map tiles (for levels 1-4 only, approx. 2mb) and set the (existing but underdocumented) custom tiles provider to use them.
This would eliminate the Internet connection dependence for the initial content in the view. And we could evolve the tiles to have ‘hints’ about making a Place with Coordinates and an Event. -
swap in the new (more meanful) map pins by @bjpcorp

Charts
- either: hide the Category’s empty sidebar and bottombar by default; or, add a default gramplet for each (maybe “Pedigree”, “Relatives” for the sidebar. And “What’s Next?” for bottombar)
Navigator sidebar
- select a primary sidebar and demote the other 2 built-ins to being addon “sidebar” plugins. This eliminates the (overly large) mode selector by default.
- Category current default
- Drop-down
(my preferred. It requires the least screen width while having fully labeled view modes in the menus. Good for both power users and newbies) - Expander
Feedback
- reword the Error Processing Arguments error message about a locked database on the post-crash restart.
More intuitive file locations during install
- install the sample data in user writable space instead of write-protected core directories. (Including the
gramps/example/csv,gramps/example/gedcom,gramps/example/grampsdata/tips.xml) to aexamplefolder in theUSER_PLUGINSfolder. (Allows revising these files with the Addon Manager.) - set an application-specific Gtk File Chooser Shortcut button to the examples folder path. (addresses #11623)
- The use of the
USER_CSSdirectory is unclear. Add a dummygramps_user.css(or whatever filename will be the topmost CSS layer abovedata/gramps.css) to that folder during installation.