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If a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, a Clear Graph Will Protect Your Science

By Johanna Elizabeth Ku posted 5 days ago

  
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During the last decade, we have seen the importance of scientists having more presence in the media and engaging with non-scientific public. So, when one is requested to prepare a graph, it’s time to put on the amateur graphic designer coat. The task can be daunting, depending on the complexity of the topic. To help toxicologists improve their science communication skills, a group of experts organized the Engagement/Workshop Session titled “Science Simplified Through Graphics,” where the presenters provided tools and strategies to attendees to transform their future presentations and graphics in impactful visual content.

Why is this so important? Traditional coursework shows us how to discover new things but not necessarily how to translate complex ideas to a simple message directed to a non-scientific public. And, in the fast-paced digital era we live in, a clear message protects our science because it can be communicated faster, which also reduces the chances of being misused. How can this be done? Before starting to work on a presentation, graph, or infographic, it is necessary to (1) define your message, (2) align your message with the audience, and (3) plan your design.

Define the Message

As a first step, it is necessary to define:

  • The information that is going to be shared

  • The major ideas that must be communicated

  • How that information is going to be shared

After defining the message and key ideas, we must refine it. This means making it easier for our audience to understand. We will do this in three steps:

  1. Simplify the message: In this step, we will transform our complex idea (technical scientific message) into plain language. This is done by eliminating the scientific jargon and using simple English (or any other language) with shorter sentences. We also must remember to tailor the language to the setting where the message will be delivered. Making the message simpler is not making it basic: we are making the message clear, and at the same time, we are keeping it concise and focused.

  1. Balance the significance and precision: Although we love our experimental design and we distill passion while explaining it … we must remember that this may not interest a non-scientist. When presenting to non-scientific audiences, we must be able to explain the study design in a simpler way and the results into key takeaways.

  1. Connect the dots: We have to construct our story by connecting the ideas and guiding our audience to the conclusion we want to communicate. We don’t let them do the effort of thinking; we take them to where we want.

Align the Message

Once the message is defined, it’s time to align the message. This is also done in three steps:

  1. Identify the audience’s goals: Identifying who our audience is and what their goals are will give us the keys to which part of our story will more easily reach them. For example, the goal of a research paper is to communicate the results and conclusions of an experiment to our scientific peers. In contrast, a review paper’s goal is to summarize the state-of-the=art of the field to our scientific peers. Meanwhile, an informational brochure will explain to the surrounding community how they are involved in the research.

  1. Find the overlap: Having identified our goals and the audience’s goal, it’s time to identify where the overlap is. What is the most important thing we want them to know that they also want to know about? What do we have in common? This is the relevant information we don’t want to miss … otherwise, the misalignment will lead to confusion, disengagement, or rejection.

  1. Adapt the story: When we go to the amusement park, we want to spend more time in the most interesting part of the park, right? Or after it’s been hours in a road trip to arrive to a place with a magnificent view, do we want to leave in five minutes? The idea of adapting our story is to dedicate more time to stay in this overlap—the common point we have with our audience. Let’s revise the message again. Now that we have found a common point with our audience, maybe there’s are a couple of words that we can teak so that the audience can feel closer to us. Now, look at the figures and graphics. Scientific figures are data-driven, so they require a lot of attention from the audience to understand what is happening. In contrast, graphics are story driven, and if used in a presentation, guess what? Presentations are for audio delivery also! So, let’s check again the message and the objective of our audience and determine which is the best approach. Also, remember to anchor the story to their existing knowledge.

Plan the Design

Before starting to build the graph, there is a final element to think of: the design. This is because a graph will tell our story, but we must decide the direction. Simple designs tell the story:

  • Unidirectional, which can be horizontal or vertical

  • Cyclical

  • Z-shaped

  • M-shaped

  • L-shaped

  • Fork-shaped, which can be horizontal or vertical

  • Split-image approach—very useful when showing healthy and disease states

Once again, think of the audience and the message to choose the best design. Also, check if we can summarize in one sentence the idea we want to show in a single slide. Each slide should present one idea.

Build the Graph

There are a lot of tools to build the graph. Each tool will have advantages and disadvantages. Overall, we have to take into consideration the three components of color:

  1. Hue: This is the color base we select, which will come accompanied by its complementary color. That said, we have to take caution when choosing red or green. Although they are complementary and are great “Go” and “Stop” colors, red-green colorblindness is the most common color vision deficiency. There are also other classic combinations that we can use, like warm and cool colors. Warm colors could be used to represent the villains (like inflammation) and the cool colors the heroes (the interventions).

  1. Saturation: This represents the intensity of the colors. As a rule, we must use the most saturated color for the focal points. To identify the focal points, ask yourself, “What is the primary component(s) that I want someone to focus on?”

  1. Value: This represents the lightness or darkness of the color. It helps to create contrast, and the best way to check it out in our graph is to convert it into a grayscale!

Finding Free Science Art Visuals

During the session, Lauren Aleksunes shared a great place to find free, high-quality science and medical visual arts. NIH BioArt Sourcehttps://bioart.niaid.nih.gov/ is a free science and biomedical art source library created by professional illustrators. According to its website, BioArt Source is “a collaborative effort between the Visual and Medical Arts Unit, part of the Research Technologies Branch, Division of Intramural Research, and the Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology’s Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, NIAID.” You can currently find more than 2,000 images grouped in the following categories: viruses, anatomy, cells and organelles, equipment, protein, animals, people, arthropods, bacteria, cellular processes, molecules, plants, shapes, brushes, swatches and templates for scientific posters. The use of this library does not require a registration or login process. Just download and use!

Key Takeaways

Here is a list of key questions to copy-and-paste into your favorite notetaking app:

I’m doing this because I want to send a clear message to protect my science. Let’s conquer this graph/presentation!

  1. Define the message:

    • What is the information I want to share?

    • What are the major ideas I want to communicate?

    • Where am I going to share that information?

    • How can I say this without scientific jargon and shorter sentences?

    • Is my message tailored to the setting where it will be used?

    • Have I simplified the complex study design?

    • Are my results presented as key takeaways?

    • Am I guiding my audience through the story toward the conclusion?

  1. Align the message:

    • Who is my audience?

    • What are their goals?

    • What do my audience and my message have in common? What is the most important thing I want them to know that they also want to know?

    • Will my audience understand this scientific figure (data driven)? Will my audience understand better with a graph (story driven)? What about having this scientific figure followed with a graph with a story they can relate to better?

    • Can I change a couple of words to make the message more “local”?

  1. Plan the design:

    • Which design is better for my objectives?

    • Unidirectional, horizontal

    • Unidirectional, vertical

    • Cyclical

    • Z-shaped

    • M-shaped

    • L-shaped

    • Fork-shaped, horizontal

    • Fork-shaped, vertical

    • Split-image approach—healthy vs disease, silent vs active

    • Can I summarize each slide or block I have planned in one sentence?

  1. Build the graph:

    • Are the colors I’ve chosen colorblind friendly?

    • What is the primary component(s) that I want my audience to focus on?

    • Have I tried to view my graph in grayscale?

    • Am I leaving enough white space?

    • Where do my eyes go first?

    • Does the graph reflect the message I planned to deliver?

    • Is there something that I can remove without losing meaning?

This Workshop Session (featuring amazing tips from Lauren Aleksunes, Alison Bernstein, Alanis Torres-Berrios, and Anke Tukker) will not make us expert graphic designers tomorrow, but it gave the audience the key foundations for delivering their scientific message more effectively. In this current fast-paced, digital, hyperconnected world, confusion is our enemy and conveying clarity helps protect our message.

This blog reports on the Workshop Session titled “Science Simplified Through Graphics” that was held during the 2026 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. An on-demand recording of this session is available for meeting registrants on the SOT Online Planner and SOT Event App.

This blog was prepared by an SOT Reporter and represents the views of the author. SOT Reporters are SOT members who volunteer to write about sessions and events in which they participate during the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. SOT does not propose or endorse any position by posting this article. If you are interested in participating in the SOT Reporter program in the future, please email SOT Headquarters.


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