Scientific Figure Design

Available Dates

Course Location Starting Date
Scientific Figure Design Online 25 February 2026 View

Figures and graphs are the way we communicate our science to others. Producing attractive figures which are easy to interpret is the best way to make a convincing case for a scientific story you are trying to tell.

In this course we look at a number of ways to help you produce better figures. We examine the underlying theory of why humans find some figures easier to interpret than others, we extend this to look at our options when using common plot types, and then we bring in relevant aspects of graphical design to make the appearance of figures as appealing as possible.

Finally we look at the use of the open source Inkscape program to allow the customisation of existing graphs, and assembling multiple figures into panels.

Pre-Course Requirements & Suggestions

Whilst not required, it may be useful to attend the following courses to supplement the knowledge you'll get from this one.

Creating Complex Figures with GGPlot

Course Content

(click to expand each section)

We start by looking at the theory of data visualistion. We introduce the concepts of marks and channels and show how it is the interaction of humans with graphical representations of data which concerns us. We show that different representations are better or worse interpreted by humans, and relate this to our choice of plots. We show how simple changes can affect our perception of figures and how we can use this to our advantage.
We can now bring the basic theory we discussed to the most common types of plots. For each type of effect you can illustrate we look at a number of diffrent plot types which can be used and discuss the differences between them and the options when you use them to let you make an objective decision about which is best for your purposes.
There comes a point where optimising the presentation of your data turns into mis-representing your data. Here we look at the different ways in which the representation of our data might be considered unethical and how to avoid them. We mostly focus on ways in which we might unwittingly mis-represent our data, deceiving both ourselves as well as our audience.
There are a number of elements from more general graphic design theory which can apply to scientific figures. Here we show how to make your plots more visually appealing through the use of spacing, alignment, colours and text. We show how minimal changes can lend your plots a more professional and consistent appearance.
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor. It can be used to create new images from scratch, or to edit figures produced in other packages. It is a useful tool in the production of both individual figures and figure panels. Here we go through the basic operation of the program to show how it can be used for the manipulation of scientific figures.