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.
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