2023-10-18

1. Introduction

Learning Objectives

  • You should be able to critically analyse how data is visualised
  • You should be able to judge a figure’s clarity and potential for misunderstanding
  • You should be able to identify potential sources of bias
  • You should understand how to create effective figures for your own work

Background Reading

Exercise: Ten figures (three per student)

  • For your assigned figure, consider the following:
    • What type of data is being presented?
    • Are the data presented effectively? (why/why not?)
    • How can the data presentation be improved?
    • Use the DOI provided to find the paper the figure is from, if you need more information than the figure legend
  • Fill in the pro forma with your answers to the questions above (one sentence each)

2. Summary Results

Responses by figure

  • We received 89 ratings in total (at three figures per student, this is 29.7 students responding)

Overall effectiveness

  • How was effectiveness scored, distributed across all figures?

Overall understandability

  • How was understandability scored, distributed across all figures?

Overall appeal

  • How was appeal scored, distributed across all figures?

Time taken per figure

  • How long did you take, per figure?

3. Results By Figure

Effectiveness/Understandability/Appeal

  • How effective/understandable/appealing did you think each figure was?

Colours/Fonts/Labels

  • How well did each figure use colours, fonts, and labels?

Statistics/Whitespace/Data

  • How well did each figure use statistics, whitespace, and data?

Reproduction

  • How well did you think you could reproduce each figure?

4. Specific Figures

Figure 1 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.029)

Figure 1 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.029)

Figure 1 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.029)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Increase contrast between font and background (black on dark blue, red/gray on white) \(\rightarrow\) easier to read
    • 1D is not colour-blind friendly
    • Scales on A and B are very different, which could mislead the reader
    • Numbers on phylogenetic trees (A&B) are not explained in fig legend (bootstraps? but this could be made clearer)
    • 1D boxplot or similar for G & H instead of bar charts
    • Use of whitespace could be better: this feels quite cluttered and the flow from A \(\rightarrow\) B \(\rightarrow\) C \(\rightarrow\) D is not very clear

Figure 1 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.029)

improvements
I feel that the data could have been simplified and broken down a bit more. It requires a lot of reading of the figure legend to work out what the data is showing and is not as easily read. There is a lot of figures crammed into the one area so the data could have been separatd a bit more to make it less overwhelming to read.
More visual colors for A and B and a better use of space
The images should be larger
I think in some of the figures there is too much text where a key could have been added to make the figure more readable.

Figure 2 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.028)

Figure 2 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.028)

Figure 2 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.028)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Images missing scale bars/scale bars hard to see
    • Good to show actual data instead of barcharts
    • Red/green fluorescence, and rainbow colour scale hard to read/interpret / not particularly accessible for colourblind readers
    • Data could perhaps be simplified/summarized, e.g. with E or F moved to supplemental
    • y-axis scales a little misleading
    • Use of whitespace could be better

Figure 2 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.028)

improvements
It felt a bit cluttered and hard to read, I’d space out the figure legend a bit more to be more specific than cluster 2A, 2B together to make it clear what section means what and for figure 2F use a line of best fit to help declutter all the points.
F is a little crowded and the significance indication is very similar to data points, so could be confusing.
Scatter plots could be clearer
clearer separation of legend colours
more spaced out using less colours with more graphs and less diagramd of mice.
Maybe inverse the colour contrast for better visuals, (lighter background over darker colour oresenting fluorescence)
I would consider a different presentation for part (e) and (f). Just personal preference. Also, images make the paper harder to make accessible and printer-friendly.
Add lines to the graphs bar/lime graph
N/a

Figure 3 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.030)

Figure 3 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.030)

Figure 3 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.030)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Inconsistent y-axis scales make it difficult to compare panels in part A
    • Why have mirrored y-axes at all?
    • Map and phylogenetic trees are missing scales
    • Colour choices between AB and CDE can be a little confusing
    • Text, particularly in panel E, too small to read clearly
    • Reasonably good use of whitespace

Figure 3 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.030)

improvements
less busy would be best as its overwhelmin gin figure E and F
Not sure why they used two different colour schemes for representing March and February in figure D - perhaps just use the same one.
more straightforward
more text description of 3C and change colours in3D
I don’t
A clearer description of figures and need statistical analysis
Some of the panels were a little clumped together and it would be a bit clearer to have them more spread out
Make the scale consistent by incorporating a percentage or arbitrary units that take population of the state into account; make the bar graph a line graph on the same grid.
less data
A little more informative

Figure 4 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.016)

Figure 4 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.016)

Figure 4 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.016)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Repetitive parts of y-axes could be simplified (all are normalized to GAPDH)
    • y-axes need to have the same scale
    • would you fit a straight line to that?
    • Good colour choices
    • Layout could have been improved – should be 3 rows with 1 column for each IFN, to make it easier for the reader to compare e.g. A, G, and M

Figure 4 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.016)

improvements
The figure looks cluttered and could have been better presented in transparent boxes to differentiate the data types being shown.
Using more than one type of data representation, and making sure that data is easier to distinguish. Maybe even combining some to allow for easy comparison.
Can change to another type of data visualisation such as Box and Whisker Plot
The figure was presented relatively well I just did not know how I should be reading the figure. However I believe maybe a different type of graph would be more effective, I’m not sure how you would be able to fit all the essential information into the graph however.
Different colours
Multiple IFNs in the same figure?
Making the panels bigger to understand and have the ability to see the trends as well as individual data which would allow us to spot anomalies too.
Less is more
different methods of data presentation

Figure 5 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.029)

Figure 5 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.029)

Figure 5 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.029)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • A flow chart illustrating the FACS technique chosen here would be helpful for the reader
    • Different scales on the x and y axes may be confusing and potentially misleading to readers
    • B-D, F – show the datapoints as 1D scatterplot?
    • G – fluorescence micrograph not colourblind friendly
    • Use of the same colour for tumor, adenoma, IBD lesion may potentially be misleading

Figure 5 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.029)

improvements
//
Try to simplify it and make it more clear
adjust scales
Better scaling of graphs. More succinct and clear figure legend which pertains to the data presented.
Pair box plots with scatter plots will help the reader understand the distribution of the data points better
the labels for x and y-axis can be more detailed and include units of measurements
They could make it easier too replicate.
Make it less dense, changing colours to black/white shapes inside some graphs
I’m not sure it can, the data that is being presented is inherently confusing so I’m not sure improvements can be made

Figure 6 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.022)

Figure 6 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.022)

Figure 6 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.022)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Good example of flow chart to illustrate experimental design
    • D-G could perhaps be combined into one graph – reduce cognitive burden on the reader
    • Some confusion in the colour scheme (P11 lysate/F2 lysate both indicated in green, inconsistent use of red, orange)
    • Nice to see box plots overlaid with datapoints

Figure 6 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.022)

improvements
each section is quite busy-looking, maybe spreading them out and making the labels a bit more simple
include each generation in C for consistency
NA
The various sub-figures could have been better categorised in their own respective boxes because this figure looks quite crowded with a lot going on
A and B should be on one panel

C should be figure on its own D-G should be on one panel H-J should be on one panel | |Make it less crowded | |Make the figure legend clearer | |lighter colour scheme, it can be hard to read and see all the data due to dark colours |

Figure 7 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.023)

Figure 7 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.023)

Figure 7 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.023)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • Good use of flow diagram to illustrate experimental procedure
    • Text too small to read easily
    • Colours rather bewildering and hard to interpret, especially in G
    • heatmap in I difficult to accurately interpret
    • use of whitespace could be better
    • axis labels in B and F could be clearer

Figure 7 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.023)

improvements
Better colour selection, less colours where unneccessary, more whitespace
use slightly brighter colours, the dull colours look similar and its difficult to decern them
Make it more spaces and change to a better visualisation type such as bar chart which is clearer.
simpflify it
Graphs could have been made larger to make it easier to read the data points and results. Words were blurred due to being too small.
Use more appropriate colour/pattern scheme.
Make the font size bigger, especially for Figure 1A.
Panel G is in most need of attention
More clear
The figure is kinda hard to read in powerpoint, but thats probably just the impact of the insertion into a powerpoint slide. I can’t be bothered to check the paper.
Visualise it differently
Try and simplify them, compact them
maybe specify on less cell types

Figure 8 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.003)

Figure 8 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.003)

Figure 8 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.003)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • A colour scale may be difficult to interpret – some shades seem very close, size of dots hard to classify
    • good to show datapoints
    • y axes in C should be same scale
    • t-SNEs difficult to read as presented
    • red/green colour palette not colourblind friendly
    • inconsistent use of colours between panels
    • scale bars missing for RNA ISH (H, right panels)

Figure 8 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.003)

improvements
make some of the figures bigger as they are a little small and i have to zoom to see them better
Not sure.
Looks a bit cluttered, not very eye-catching so maybe space it out a bit and add better colour
Split it up, make the text bigger and provide a better legend.
less data on the page, data should be made at a larger scale so its readable
N/A
Panel E has variations in shapes and its not clear why and the colors aren’t accessible to all
its amazing, stunning, I don’t know.
N/A

Figure 9 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.024)

Figure 9 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.024)

Figure 9 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.024)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • colours in B are dark/hard to distinguish
    • different axes in D and E make it difficult to compare data
    • circular presentation of chromosomes is confusing/misleading
    • reddish/green colour choices might be OK but there are better options
    • A doesn’t add much value to the figure
    • may be better ways to present B – lines through datapoints?

Figure 9 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.024)

improvements
Figure E’s error bars have a weird colour that makes them look faded and hard to look at
Maybe use more contrasting colours
F and G were difficult to understand/visualise. Text was rather small and difficult to read. Requires the reader to look between the figure legend and data to understand it is showing. The colours were also not extremely clear making it difficult to see clear groups. Figure E was particularly difficult to interpret due to a blurred effect of the colours used in the graph.
Better labelling of graphs with age groups, error bars on bar graphs, more breakdown of complicated data into readable graphs, more detailed figure legend.
further explanation and figure titles
more spaced out graphs with clear outlines and the diagrams in section b are quite hard to understand so maybe a simpler version to get the point across.
Uhh
PUTTING THE BOTTOM DATAT INTO A TABLE INSTEAD OF A WHEEL WOULD MAKE IT EASIER TO VISUALIZE
less numbers less figures

Figure 10 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.006)

Figure 10 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.006)

Figure 10 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.006)

  • Suggested improvements:
    • kinetic data better presented in a table
    • concentration of what?
    • include keys with figures, don’t make the reader look back and forth with the legend
    • Coloured line in B not explained in key or figure legend
    • match y-axes scales in B
    • confusing/unnecessary to split H into two graphs
    • include full colour key in G (missing purple), H (orange)
    • Text could be a little larger to make it easier to read
    • Good flow from A-H, good use of whitespace

Figure 10 (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.006)

improvements
Layout figure A and B better
larger diagrams and graphs with clear distinctions
the graphs can be labelled better
The images could be larger and the bars on the chart could also be larger to allow for reading against the scale.
Unsure
making it clear the difference between part A and B and seperating the graphs in part B would help
Better colour difference
given a lot of info at once, maybe break it down a bit
Make the distinction between panels clearer

5. Summing Up

General Comments

  • Colour choices
  • Larger figures/graphs, more space between figures/graphs
  • Too much data per figure
  • Split into multiple figures
  • Remove unnecessary data (how do we define this?)
  • “The data is presented in a manner that would likely be inaccessible for people without prior experience. A move toward a more palatable/digestible format will facilitate better science communication in the future.”

Visualising Data About Data Visualisation

  • What did you say about figure effectiveness?

Visualising Data About Data Visualisation

  • What words did you use to describe figure improvements?

Data Visualisation is Not Neutral