Design Theory

v2018-02

Boo Virk
Simon Andrews

[email protected]
[email protected]
Why does good design matter?

• Good design makes a great first impression

• Good design makes for effective

communication

• Good design keeps the reader engaged

Art Palvanov (http://www.palvanov.com/)

Elements of design

Contrast Alignment

Colour Symmetry Space

Repetition
Proximity
Size
 Proximity – Find logical and visually
appealing ways to structure panels
• Which figures logically group
together?
• Are there sub-groups which
should be connected?
• Is there a logical flow to the
ordering?

• Is the layout balanced?

Alignment: Some arrangements are
more visually appealing than others
We like symmetrical ordered layouts

Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory (2012)

Modeling H. pylori using ENISI and Cell Designer
We like regular radial arrangements

A panoramic view of acute myeloid leukemia

Sai-Juan Chen, Yang Shen & Zhu Chen
Nature Genetics 45, 586–587 (2013)
Without symmetry we should consider
visual weight
Bold Outline

Strong
Colour

Size
Variation

O’Callaghan CA (2000) Molecular basis of human natural killer cell recognition Greenblum S (2012) Metagenomic systems biology of the human gut
of HLA-E (human leucocyte antigen-E) and its relevance to clearance of microbiome reveals topological shifts associated with obesity and inflammatory
pathogen-infected and tumour cells, Clinical Science 99, (9–17) bowel disease, PNAS vol. 109 no. 2
Different characteristics give an object
visual weight

Colour
Size

Shape
Isolation
Use visual weight for emphasis or
symmetry
Alignment: We are sensitive to aligned
edges, even when they are separated
Control
200
Treatment A
150
Treatment B
100

50

0
120 Control
Control
100
Treatment A Treatment A
80
60 Treatment B Treatment B
40 Dead
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Day
Use a grid to help align disparate parts
of a figure
Control
200
Treatment A
150
Treatment B
100

50

120 Control
Control
100
Treatment A Treatment A
80
60 Treatment B Treatment B

40 Dead
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Day
Leave space between elements of
figures
Whitespace has two main functions

• Implied grouping of elements

• Emphasis
Colour can be an essential or optional
part of any figure

0
1 2 3 4 5
Colour can have multiple uses
• Colour can be used to:
– Highlight specific data
– Group categories of data
– Encode quantitative values

• The more selective you are with colour, the

greater its effect
• Try to make figures work in black and white
Sparing use of colour is most effective
• We want to show that samples 4 and 6 are low
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

• Which is most effective at conveying your

message?
Don’t invent your own colour schemes

Colorbrewer2.org
Use an appropriate colour scheme
+
• Sequential
– Run between two values
– Typically two main colours - +
• Divergent
– Diverging from a central value to a min and
a max
– Typically three colours
• Categorical
– Colours have no intrinsic ordering
If possible try to consider colour blind users

• Affects 1:12 men and 1:200 women worldwide

• “If a submitted manuscript happens to go to

three male reviewers of Northern European
descent, the chance that at least one will be
colour blind is 22 percent.”
 You can see how well your figure
works for colour blind people
• Gradients are easy
to change Normal
colour
vision

• Categorical colours
are very limited
Protanopia
• Basic interpretability
in black and white is
ideal

http://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
When overlaying information, make
sure you have sufficient contrast

Poor contrast Good contrast

Poor contrast Good contrast

Vibrating colour
Busy
background
Add overlays to increase contrast

Poor contrast Good contrast

Keep text and fonts simple

• All fonts for figures should use sans serif fonts

sans-serif serif

• All text in figures should be black or white

Wild type Wild type

Knockout Knockout
Keep text horizontal
 Make sure appropriate labels are
added

• Each axis is labelled

• Quantitative axes have units
• Colour scheme is explained
• Point shapes are explained
Make sure all text is legible
at the final printed size
30
24
18
30

12 24
18
12
6
6 0
1 2 3 4 5

0
1 2 3 4 5
6 point font is the smallest you can comfortably read
(just over 2mm height on paper)
When resizing be aware of what can and
cannot have its aspect ratio changed

• Things that always need to

maintain their aspect ratios:
– Images
– Text X
– Circular objects
– Axes with comparable units 
When resizing be aware of what can and
cannot have its aspect ratio changed


Simpler figures are easier to interpret
Simpler figures are easier to interpret
42.5 40
40 38.4
37.5
35
32.5 30
30
27.5 26.5

25
22.5
20
20
17.5 16.5

15
12.6
12.5
10 10

7.5
5 3.4
2.5
0 0
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri
Consistency across figures makes
interpretation easier

• Same colour/marker for same group

• Size of comparable figures should be the same
• Positions of axis titles and labels
• Font styles and sizes
• Order: If presented ‘Sample A’ and then
‘Sample B’, maintain this throughout
Elements of design

Contrast Alignment

Colour Symmetry Space

Repetition
Proximity
Size