1. A method for displaying related data elements of a variety of data element types on a computer system including a graphical display, the method comprising: providing an element template collection defining user interface graphics for ones of the variety of data element types; providing a relationship view collection defining spatial relationships between a current element of a first specified type and a set of related data elements of at least a second specified type; providing a set of data elements, by a data provider, the set of data elements describing instances of data elements of the variety of data element types; and applying, by a relationship view control comprising computer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium of the computer system, the element template collection and the relationship view collection to the set of data elements to render a layout view comprising a set of graphical elements corresponding to the set of data elements, wherein the set of graphical elements are: generated for particular types of the variety of data element types according to the element template collection, and spatially arranged according to the relationship view collection spatial relationships between the current element and the set of related data elements.