WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:07.007 align:middle line:84% [Morse code beeps] [Whoosh] 00:00:07.007 --> 00:00:12.012 align:middle line:90% [Helicopter rotor] 00:00:12.012 --> 00:00:16.516 align:middle line:84% Hi. My name is Annika Thomas, and I'm a fellow with the AeroAstro Communication 00:00:16.516 --> 00:00:20.286 align:middle line:84% Lab at MIT, and today we're going to be talking about figure design. 00:00:22.088 --> 00:00:25.258 align:middle line:84% By the end of our lesson, you should be able to understand 00:00:25.258 --> 00:00:28.328 align:middle line:84% the purpose of figures in technical communication. 00:00:29.529 --> 00:00:31.631 align:middle line:90% You will learn criteria for designing 00:00:31.631 --> 00:00:34.634 align:middle line:90% clear and effective figures, 00:00:34.868 --> 00:00:38.271 align:middle line:84% and you should be able to apply best practices to evaluate 00:00:38.271 --> 00:00:41.274 align:middle line:90% and improve a figure. 00:00:41.708 --> 00:00:45.011 align:middle line:84% Some criteria for success for your figures is 00:00:45.011 --> 00:00:49.215 align:middle line:84% they should communicate a clear, one sentence, main message. 00:00:49.682 --> 00:00:53.286 align:middle line:84% They provide evidence that directly supports that message. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.824 align:middle line:84% They minimize visual noise that can distract from that message. 00:00:59.025 --> 00:01:01.027 align:middle line:90% They should be easy to interpret 00:01:01.027 --> 00:01:03.997 align:middle line:84% without having additional explanation needed. 00:01:05.364 --> 00:01:07.567 align:middle line:90% So what is the purpose of a figure? 00:01:08.701 --> 00:01:11.838 align:middle line:90% Figures communicate a takeaway message. 00:01:12.505 --> 00:01:15.508 align:middle line:90% The evidence that supports that message 00:01:15.775 --> 00:01:19.012 align:middle line:84% and the figures job is not just to show data, 00:01:19.312 --> 00:01:21.648 align:middle line:90% but also to show what you learned from it. 00:01:21.648 --> 00:01:25.185 align:middle line:84% We're not just showing that quantitative data that you collected, 00:01:25.351 --> 00:01:30.156 align:middle line:84% we're also really encapsulating whatever that takeaway message is from the figure. 00:01:30.457 --> 00:01:34.227 align:middle line:84% The first thing you should do is analyze the context of your figure. 00:01:35.462 --> 00:01:38.364 align:middle line:90% This includes why does our figure exist? 00:01:38.364 --> 00:01:40.934 align:middle line:90% What's the purpose of it? 00:01:40.934 --> 00:01:43.937 align:middle line:84% Who is our intended audience for the figure? 00:01:44.070 --> 00:01:47.372 align:middle line:84% Is it a more technical audience in a scientific paper, 00:01:47.473 --> 00:01:50.477 align:middle line:84% or maybe a more general audience in a presentation? 00:01:51.277 --> 00:01:53.279 align:middle line:90% And where will that figure appear? 00:01:53.279 --> 00:01:54.814 align:middle line:90% In what setting? 00:01:54.814 --> 00:01:57.817 align:middle line:84% So figures look different in different settings. 00:01:57.851 --> 00:01:59.953 align:middle line:90% Like I mentioned, in papers, 00:01:59.953 --> 00:02:03.656 align:middle line:84% we have self-contained figures and informative captions. 00:02:04.257 --> 00:02:07.227 align:middle line:90% Posters have large readable figures 00:02:07.227 --> 00:02:10.830 align:middle line:84% that should be visible and interpretable from a distance, 00:02:12.332 --> 00:02:15.935 align:middle line:84% and slides in presentations have simplified figures 00:02:15.935 --> 00:02:18.938 align:middle line:84% that should be optimized for quick comprehension. 00:02:21.608 --> 00:02:25.945 align:middle line:84% So you're going to want to decide what the correct figure type is for you, 00:02:25.945 --> 00:02:29.349 align:middle line:84% based on the circumstance in which you're sharing that information. 00:02:30.250 --> 00:02:32.619 align:middle line:90% Text, tables, and figures 00:02:32.619 --> 00:02:35.622 align:middle line:90% all communicate information differently. 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:38.958 align:middle line:90% Figures can serve different purposes. 00:02:38.958 --> 00:02:44.664 align:middle line:84% Photos give us realism and scale, understanding of experimental setups, 00:02:44.664 --> 00:02:48.501 align:middle line:84% and things that we can actually physically see and interpret. 00:02:49.435 --> 00:02:52.939 align:middle line:84% Illustrations give us structure and function, 00:02:54.440 --> 00:02:56.009 align:middle line:90% and graphs provide us with 00:02:56.009 --> 00:02:59.145 align:middle line:90% trends, comparisons, and processes. 00:02:59.646 --> 00:03:03.483 align:middle line:84% And on this slide, you'll see three different ways in which 00:03:03.483 --> 00:03:08.321 align:middle line:84% we can communicate the same information using different figure types 00:03:08.621 --> 00:03:11.558 align:middle line:90% including a table, text, 00:03:11.558 --> 00:03:15.628 align:middle line:90% and an actual figure on an X-Y chart. 00:03:16.029 --> 00:03:19.232 align:middle line:84% So depending on the circumstance, we might choose 00:03:19.232 --> 00:03:22.335 align:middle line:84% one of these different figure types to communicate this information. 00:03:23.469 --> 00:03:24.571 align:middle line:90% So a certain type of 00:03:24.571 --> 00:03:27.607 align:middle line:84% figure that we might be including is a plot. 00:03:27.607 --> 00:03:30.610 align:middle line:84% And you want to choose the correct plot design as well. 00:03:31.144 --> 00:03:35.114 align:middle line:84% So the plot type should match what you want to show with that figure. 00:03:35.481 --> 00:03:39.752 align:middle line:84% Distributions are well shown by histograms and box plots. 00:03:40.153 --> 00:03:44.457 align:middle line:84% Trends over time are most commonly shown using line plots. 00:03:45.358 --> 00:03:48.328 align:middle line:84% Correlations can be shown using scatter plots, 00:03:49.329 --> 00:03:51.430 align:middle line:90% And you always want to plot your data 00:03:51.430 --> 00:03:54.434 align:middle line:90% before summarizing it. 00:03:55.067 --> 00:03:56.936 align:middle line:90% An important concept in figure 00:03:56.936 --> 00:03:59.939 align:middle line:90% design is signal versus noise. 00:04:00.907 --> 00:04:04.043 align:middle line:84% Signal is the message that you want the audience to see, 00:04:04.544 --> 00:04:08.414 align:middle line:84% while noise is anything that distracts from that message. 00:04:08.715 --> 00:04:11.751 align:middle line:90% Some common sources of noise in figures 00:04:12.151 --> 00:04:15.154 align:middle line:90% include too much data in your figure, 00:04:15.989 --> 00:04:19.726 align:middle line:84% using poor plot choices, so selecting the wrong type of plot 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:24.030 align:middle line:84% based on the the message that you want to communicate with your audience, 00:04:25.131 --> 00:04:27.467 align:middle line:90% and sometimes including excessive visual 00:04:27.467 --> 00:04:30.470 align:middle line:84% elements can distract from that main message. 00:04:31.237 --> 00:04:36.109 align:middle line:84% And on this slide we have a good example of signal versus noise in a pie chart. 00:04:36.376 --> 00:04:40.046 align:middle line:84% On the left side we have pretty small text a bunch of labels 00:04:40.213 --> 00:04:42.148 align:middle line:90% and kind of a wordy caption. 00:04:42.148 --> 00:04:45.284 align:middle line:84% versus on the right side, we really streamline this pie 00:04:45.284 --> 00:04:48.254 align:middle line:90% chart into a key takeaway message. 00:04:48.521 --> 00:04:51.024 align:middle line:84% Another important thing to think about while designing 00:04:51.024 --> 00:04:53.993 align:middle line:84% your figures is accessibility in figure design. 00:04:54.427 --> 00:04:58.264 align:middle line:84% Your figures should be understandable to you all audience members. 00:04:58.731 --> 00:05:01.634 align:middle line:90% Some best practices for this include 00:05:01.634 --> 00:05:04.270 align:middle line:90% don't rely on color alone in order 00:05:04.270 --> 00:05:07.273 align:middle line:90% to communicate a message, 00:05:07.373 --> 00:05:10.476 align:middle line:84% you should use high contrast and readable fonts. 00:05:11.811 --> 00:05:14.113 align:middle line:90% And in addition to your figure caption, 00:05:14.113 --> 00:05:17.784 align:middle line:84% you should also include alt text to describe the figures. 00:05:19.085 --> 00:05:19.819 align:middle line:90% Now we're going to go 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:23.690 align:middle line:84% ahead and take these concepts into an actual figure 00:05:23.690 --> 00:05:28.528 align:middle line:84% that you're working on with an activity where you evaluate and revise a figure. 00:05:29.062 --> 00:05:32.298 align:middle line:84% So go ahead and choose a figure that you are currently using 00:05:32.298 --> 00:05:37.303 align:middle line:84% or plan to use for a paper, poster, presentation, etc. 00:05:37.637 --> 00:05:41.808 align:middle line:84% and answer the questions detailed in the activity. 00:05:41.808 --> 00:05:47.413 align:middle line:90% [Alien spaceship beeps] 00:05:47.413 --> 00:05:53.753 align:middle line:90% Now by the end of this lesson, 00:05:53.753 --> 00:05:57.957 align:middle line:84% you should be able to articulate the main message of a figure. 00:05:58.558 --> 00:06:01.494 align:middle line:90% You should be able to evaluate a figures 00:06:01.494 --> 00:06:05.131 align:middle line:84% context, audience, and signal to noise ratio. 00:06:05.665 --> 00:06:09.001 align:middle line:84% And you should be able to identify concrete changes 00:06:09.302 --> 00:06:14.240 align:middle line:84% that would improve clarity, accessibility, and interpretability of your figures. 00:06:15.074 --> 00:06:17.009 align:middle line:90% Thanks for watching. 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:19.412 align:middle line:90% [Alien spaceship beeps]