design – Brushing Up Science

Ugly scientific figures: Are scientists lazy, indifferent, or oblivious?

Too many scientific figures are ugly. I see three possible reasons:

Laziness: scientists could make nice figures, but don’t put in the effort
Obliviousness: scientists are unaware their figures are ugly
Indifference: scientists care only about the data, but not their presentation

Take the following published scientific figure (suitably disguised):

Let’s list the problems: (1) Space is poorly used and data are cramped. (2) Text is bold for no reason. (3) Multiple fonts are used. (4) Tick marks are barely visible. (5) Some labels don’t fit in their respective boxes. (6) Axis values are unnecessarily repeated. (7) Dashed and dash-dotted lines are ugly. (8) Mathematical symbols are not italicised.

Remove cognitive overhead from your scientific papers

“There is this scientific convention of: ‘You put the images on one side, then you put the text to decipher it on the other side.’” That’s Jonathan Corum, science graphics editor for the New York Times, politely critiquing one of the ways in which a typical scientific paper creates unnecessary work for the reader, or “cognitive overhead.”

Decipher is the key word above (and a word I’ll use again below). If deciphering is necessary, it will precede understanding, but that doesn’t mean it is necessary. “No one intends to build a product with large cognitive overhead, but it happens if there isn’t forethought and recognition for it.”

eye_movement_opt — A poorly designed figure. The reader’s eyes to have to dart back and forth between the panels, the colour bars, the labels, and the caption. This unnecessary work inhibits a deeper understanding of the data.

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Embracing minimalism when presenting science

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler said Einstein. Except, he didn’t. His version of the quote was four times longer.

I’m not surprised that it took a non scientist to paraphrase and create the short, popular version. As scientists, we are not accustomed to brevity. We want to provide every detail. We read papers filled with columns of 10pt text. We construct figures with dozens of lines and colours. We spare no bit of white space when we design posters. And don’t get me started on logos for scientific campaigns (long story short: too many elements, too many colours, and too literal).

We lack minimalism.

You may argue that detail, nuance, and chains of logic—hallmarks of science—are not easily reduced to 280 characters or a sexy soundbite. I don’t disagree. But there are still aspects of minimalism we should embrace.

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