User cannot identify and click individual branch if there are too many

[batson]

Context
I cannot find or click on the purple branch because they are thin in a dense region.

Description
There are two ways I can think of to solve this problem.

One of them is to remove the topmost clade, which I am uninterested in at the moment, and let the rest of the tree expand and fill the vertical space. This could be: right click on a branch or node and hide-descendants.

The other is to allow zooming in the vertical dimension. For example, right click on any branch and zoom-1.5x. This would allow the user to select a fixed branch to zoom to, pushing the other branches away from it so individual branches can be distinguished from one another.

There are more complex solutions, such as allowing a user to filter and then re-layout the tree given filters. Or, to click on a node, and allow me to intelligently subset the tree to its "neighborhood", given some options for neighborhood. If it were the latter, we might add a button or other interface in the popover for a node with options for kinds of neighborhood (path to root, distance < k, etc).

Example

Were I able to locate and click on the branch I wanted, I would get this subset. (I was only able to get here by finding a later branch, zooming to it, and iteratively going to a parent.)

[evogytis]

This is a substantial usability issue, especially as the numbers of sequences continues growing. The solution could be as simple as a button that allows for greatly increased height of the tree card.

[trvrb]

(Sorry, mis-clicked) I agree that this is a significant issue. I like these suggestions. I have an idea here about how to generally approach this. I'll try to write it up in the next day or two.

[trvrb]

Here's my proposed UX solution: #1132. Sorry to split threads, wanted to keep discussion here to fixes to your particular issue Josh and wanted specific feedback on my proposal in #1132.

[trvrb]

The first steps of tackling this issue are represented by #1257. With proper "zoom to selected" implemented we would then need more expressive ways to filter to tips of interest (via lasso, etc...).

[corneliusroemer]

Vertical zooming would go some way to help with this horizontal zooming issue #1360.

The most generic solution I can think of would be zoom to rectangle. The tips are redrawn so as to fit only those on the screen that are within the rectangle.