Kamis, 15 Mei 2014

Latest modern science | Critique and makeover: Zen microbiome (no relation) - Si Bejo Science

Today�s sharing come from Jenna Lang, and is used with her permission. Click to enlarge:


This poster has a different goal than most of the posters here. It�s a recruiting tool, not a research report. I�ll let Jenna explain (slightly edited):

I am a microbial ecologist. Historically, members of our lab all attend the same conferences and interact with the same people. Lately, I�ve been doing things a little differently.
This poster was presented at a gathering of partners in a big network of seagrass researchers (see zenscience.org). These people work at sites all over the world, they speak many different languages, and English with many levels of proficiency. They are marine biologists, and spend their days on boats and in SCUBA gear, and thinking about large-scale ecological questions. They know NOTHING about what my lab does.
I attending this conference because I want to know what kinds of microbes are living in their seagrass beds, and I want them to send me samples. Sample collection is super simple (something I want to emphasize) and the role of microbes in seagrass beds is entirely unknown (although we assume it will be important.) I wanted to keep this poster free (as much as possible) from jargon, to present just enough data to show what types of things we can learn, and to provide a few figures that I can reference when talking to them about the overall goals of our project and to the diversity of seagrasses at their sites (thus the phylogenetic tree and the illustration of various seagrass types.) I also had some props with me (a water filtration device and some collection tubes and a storage box.)

When I presented this poster it went over very well. People are very excited to work with me and very willing to send me samples. I look forward to presenting this �recruitment tool� at other conferences in the future.

Despite the title, the original poster didn�t have much of a Zen aesthetic. There was just a little too much going on. There were a lot of lines and thick boxes. The credits were fighting for attention in the title. Some sections were centered, others were left justified, for no apparent reason.

In editing, I tried taking out the trash. Mainly, this meant removing, or at least lightening, a lot of the lines in the boxes. Let the colour differences define the space, rather than heavy lines.



I think lightening up the poster helps.

A recruiting poster has a goal of bringing in those who know nothing. That �We need your help!� is visible, even at this reduced size, helps achieve that goal. But I am still concerned that this poster may be a little too complex and intimidating to bring in casual onlookers.

Sabtu, 10 Mei 2014

Latest modern science | Critique: Crab burial - Si Bejo Science

Today, I�m pleased to present an award winning poster from Emma Locatelli. This one took Council Poster Prize at the Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting in 2012. You can click to enlarge:


This is going to be a short critique, because this is a sharp, well done poster. (And I say this not just because my own research revolves around crustaceans like the crabs here!) Let�s check off a few of reasons this poster is a major successe:

  1. The poster has two clear columns, which make it completely clear what the reading order is. 
  2. The story is told with a lot of pictures and minimal text.
  3. Most things are neatly aligned with another element on the page.
  4. There is reasonable amount of white space, so that the poster doesn�t look too crowded.
  5. There�s a clear take-home message.
  6. Logos are down in the fine print where they belong!

Where might we see some improvement?



There is an implied question in the first line of the introduction, lurking like a hidden fossil:

Three primary hypotheses can explain the dearth of land crabs in the fossil record(.)

I�d state the question outright: �Why are land crabs� fossils so rare?� This might have even been the title of the poster: shorter, punchier, and perhaps more likely to draw in curious passers-by.

The poster is set in Gill Sans, a classic typeface that I enjoy and use a lot myself. Here, though, I wonder if a more modern typeface in the same style might have made it look fresher and lighter. For example, bold Gill Sans looks a little clunky. There is a lot of bold on this poster for emphasis. I would use less bold, probably removing it from the methods completely. The more emphasis you use, the less effective it is.

While the poster does a generally good job of spacing and alignment, there are a few places that could be improved. The graph caption above �Subsurface alignment� in the results come a trifle too close to the text below it.

Similarly, it would have been nice if the figures in the methods and the results � two rows, both three to a column � were equally wide, so that the two rows of figures aligned perfectly. And there are a few other quirky spots where things that should line up or be closer to each other are not. 

There�s one tiny typesetting inconsistency. The last list item of the introduction ends with a period, but none of the other sentences in lists end in periods. This is such a small thing that if someone pointed it out to me, I would joke that it�s there to avoid offending God, because only God is perfect.

Kamis, 08 Mei 2014

Kamis, 01 Mei 2014

Latest modern science | Critique: Irrigation and butterflies - Si Bejo Science

Today�s contribution comes from Andrea Barden (click to enlarge):



She writes:

I used a green and blue orientated theme as to me it linked in with the theme of the topic (irrigation).

This is a good way to try to approach the colour scheme. It is always helpful to just think, �What colour do people associate with this topic?� While you might be tempted to try �something different,� the risk is that you will simply confuse people instead.

I might have tried to simplify the colour scheme a little more, perhaps by not using the photographic background. The varying colours in the background change the foreground colours in the boxes, making it look more complex than it is.

I�ve tried to separate out the most important/interesting points using the blue boxes with the blue butterflies. It�s sort of a case of �follow the blues� in a way!

I like this idea, but am not crazy about the execution. The butterflies look like decoration, not guides. To have the butterflies guide people to highlights, they need to be consistent, and each needs to be clearly associated with one thing.

But these butterflies are not consistent. The orientation of the butterfly changes. Some are next to text, and one are next to a graph.

And these butterflies are often straddling boxes or other elements; the second one from the left is particularly bad in that way. Is it emphasizing the �Diversity partitioning analysis� or �Additive partitioning�?

The biggest issue with this poster, I think, is simply the volume of information here. There are too many elements in the space, and it looks cramped. A very hard-nosed edit to focus on the most essential elements would probably help.

I do like how the references and contact information are placed in the bottom, perhaps because it is one of the few parts of the poster that is not overloaded.

Kamis, 24 April 2014

Latest modern science | Link roundup for April 2014 - Si Bejo Science

I�ve blogged about digital posters from time to time, but I have yet to see or hear them done well. Das Terminal is apparently trying to position itself for the inevitable future of posters on screens instead of paper (hat tip to Peter Casserly). Here�s some of their screens:


I�m not sure of the industrial location they chose to photograph their product places it in the friendliest, or gives the impression of something contemporary or forward-looking.

This is a very interesting article about how your colour choices affect how people interpret your data.

When colors are paired with the concepts that evoke them, we call these �semantically resonant color choices.� ...(S)emantically resonant colors can enable you to take advantage of familiar existing relationships, thus requiring you to use less conscious thought and speeding recall. Non-resonant colors, on the other hand, can cause semantic interference: the colors and concepts interfere with each other(.)

Here�s an example:



Hat tip to Nancy Duarte and Harvard Business Review.

Poster Session alerts PowerPoint users to some weirdness in how PowerPoint renders purples.

The reason is that PowerPoint works in the RGB color space, and the interpretation of RGB into the CMYK colors that a printer uses is not always what it should be.

A nominee for �Best poster title of the year�:



Heh. Jon Tennant says, �Just decided this is going to be the layout for every future poster presentation I give�:


Empathy with the user! That�s the heart of Justin Kiggin�s great answer to, �Why do scientist still read PDFs of papers instead of web versions?� Because publishers keep doing this to their HTML versions:


It�s the logo problem all over again. Stop giving us irrelevant stuff.

Here�s a nice set of answers on Quora over how professionals choose different typefaces. Here�s an excerpt from the top rated answer:

�How do I choose the right font� is such a simple question yet there are so many ways to answer it. ... As a designer, you are (or should be) always paying attention to design in your environment and media. If you notice a cool typeface in something, like a movie poster or a billboard, see if you can track it down later using Google searches or WhatTheFont, so you can add it to your arsenal for future use.

Also includes a link out to bad type choices.

For some weird, strange reason, academics seem to love Comics Sans. I don�t think it�s the right choice for most academic purposes, but, if you insist on that style of typeface, why not at least get cleaned up version of it? Presenting Comic Neue, a much improved version of the most maligned typeface. (I still don�t like the serif on the capital C.) Hat tip to Mary Canady.


But an even better choice? Use typefaces created by professional comic letterers!

Kamis, 17 April 2014

Latest modern science | Critiques: Newtown and white noise - Si Bejo Science

This following two posters come from a contributor who has asked to have identifying information removed from these posters. The creator of these wrote:

Coming from a design back ground, research posters have somewhat astounded me.

I think you can see the design sensibilities in these. There�s a lot more thought to typography, colour, and layout than I usually see (or do myself!).

First, we have a neighbourhood poster that pulls off some sophisticated grids (switching from 2 column to 3 column layout), has good use of icons, and interesting type choices.


I would be a little concerned if this was hung in a conference session where the light was low. Some features, like white text on the light blue background, might wash out if it was in dim lighting.

The next one is notable for me because I always find �portrait� posters (taller than wide) tricky. This one uses colour to make the reading order, in bands, clear. The muted colour palette is effective and appropriately calm (for a hospital poster). The drawing of the hospital bed combined with the large and evocative type used for �White noise� is an excellent entry point. Indeed, the �White noise� is an excellent example of the beginning typesetting exercise, �Make the word look like the thing is represents.�



My concern is that there is a lot of small text there. I would be deterred from stopping at it because of that.

Selasa, 15 April 2014

Latest modern science | Guest post at The Conference Mentor - Si Bejo Science

Latest modern science | Guest post at The Conference Mentor - Si Bejo Science

The Conference Mentor is a blog devoted to conference organization.  They asked me a few questions about presenting posters.

I talk about why posters are a tool for democracy and talks are elitist; paying attention to those around you; and some pros and cons of PowerPoint.

Read the interview here!

External link