by Jacopo Sacquegno
Today, the evolution of advanced software tools allows researchers to generate a huge amount of visual content, such as high-definition pictures and 3D realistic models of microscopic structures. Nevertheless, simple, hand-made drawing even in its most basic form is still fundamental in science understanding and communication.
From the drawings of the magnetic fields lines by Faraday to graphical representations of atomic orbitals and chemical bonds; from the sketched lines and ellipses, Kepler used to describe planetary orbits to the original phylogenetic tree first drawn by Darwin on his notebook. Now, as then, scientists imagine new relations, test ideas and elaborate knowledge through doodling, sketching and tracing charts and graphics.
As this study underlines, an increasing body of evidence supports the idea that visual literacy should be part of a researcher’s toolkit as a way to construct and record knowledge, reason on measurements and observations, deepen comprehension and encouraging further investigation, and communicate science by sharing their representations.
Some scientific support to the visualization case
But why is visualization, and increasingly so, important to science? To answer this, let me apply some scientific data.Humans have been communicating with each other for approximately 30,000 years, 10 times longer than the use of written words. This is why our brain is “hard wired” to process visual information.
- Our vision accounts for two-thirds of the electrical activity of the brain, and 50% of the brain is involved directly or indirectly in processing visual information;
- A recent study showed we need only 13ms to understand the meaning of a complex image (even faster than what previously known);
- It can take up to 20 times as long to process and recognise words.
- In recent decades, visual information has increased by 142% in newspapers (from 1985 to 1994), 400% in literature (since 1990) and an astonishing 9900% on the internet (since 2007). This can be mainly imputed to “information overload”:
- We receive 5 times as much information today as we did in 1986;
- 34 gigabytes, or 100,500 words – is the amount of information we consume outside of work on an average day
- On average users only read 28% of words per visit
As for science, the huge volumes of data generated in these years have made data analysis and visualization a central point of scientific research. In fact, nowadays most of the research on how to communicate and organize large datasets to facilitate clear thinking involves graphic artists, information design specialists and visual cognitive scientists.
What is visual thinking and how can it be used
Visual thinking methodologies to synthesize ideas and concepts put together traditional handwritten notes with drawings, symbols, frames and other creative elements in a structured layout. The result is an engaging map of ideas with clear visual cues.
Visual thinking can be used for personal visual note-taking, creating the so-called sketchnotes, as well as for capturing in real-time key concepts from conference sessions on sketchnote boards to give attendees a visual summary of the insights at a glance, in what is called scribing. Being hand-drawn, this mode of representation outperforms laptop note-taking on conceptual understanding and long term recall. When it is created real-time for the audience, it further enhances engagement.
Moreover, recent observations have warned presenters and speakers on the use of PowerPoint. Linear presentations like these, often overloaded with written content, are too rigid and do not favor further reasoning on the subject; do not encourage “out of the box” reasoning, and let the audience rely too much solely on the information contained in the slides.
Using visual thinking to create presentations overcomes both these issues, strengthening visual aids with a limited amount of written content and creating non-linear, more Prezi-like style content frames that help navigate through the context in a non-rigid way and encouraging connections between ideas.
The case for visual abstracts
There is a recent trend among scientific journals to use visual communication in order to deliver research contents, methods and results in a more engaging, easy to catch, clear and memorable way both to the public and other scientist colleagues. Visual abstracts are one of the best examples of this, and their success has been scientifically tested.In this article, the author and member of the editorial board of Annals of Surgery show how the introduction of visual abstract for their journal’s articles posted on Twitter increased by 2.7 times the number of article visits, by 8.4 retweets and 7.2 tweet views. Another case study is that of “cartoon abstracts” required by Taylor & Francis Publishing Group journals. Using the visual format of comic strips, they add an element of visual storytelling, which further increases engagement in the reader: “cartoon abstracts have generated over 12,000 extra downloads for articles published in journals which range across the sciences, technology, and maths. With the authors represented through characters in the cartoon strip, they’re also a useful networking tool among peers”.
The reaction on social media sharing of these abstracts reflects their ability to communicate science and research to a broad audience in an accessible and funny way. What’s more, these visual abstract can easily become beautiful posters to show at the next conference.
Great article.
ReplyDeletethanks Dario... always too kind :)
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