Tips for scientific illustrations - What makes a good scientific illustration

Tips for scientific illustrations - What makes a good scientific illustration

If you want to present your research in the form of publication or presentation, scientific illustrations always help to make understand your research.

Tips for scientific illustrations

So these are some tips for you to make great scientific illustrations.

1. Know your audience

Don’t illustrate what they already know, clarify what they don’t know.

2. Tell your story

Started here (hunch), did this (experiments), and ended up somewhere (conclusions). Keep the components (colours, shapes, views, etc.) consistent from illustration to illustration.

3. Create interest and stimulate the imagination.

4. Control

Move the reader through the illustration Left to right, top to bottom.

5. Colour

Only when necessary, use it to direct focus.

6. Humour

But only if appropriate to the subject matter.

7. Human

Add a face, hand, body, etc. humans love to see humans.

8. New ideas

Require simple illustrations. Let the idea take focus not the illustration.

9. Technical text

Technical text equal to technical graphic, add parts or sections to clarify.

10. Defaults

In general, never use the defaults, they are always WRONG. Try to make your own combination.

Never hesitate to invest in good graphics. They pay for themselves by clarifying your research and data to those around you.