{"id":809,"date":"2017-04-21T16:34:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T04:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/?page_id=809"},"modified":"2018-05-28T10:38:04","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T22:38:04","slug":"how-to-make-good-figures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/training-for-staff-and-students\/scientific-illustration-tutorials\/how-to-make-good-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make good figures"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What makes a good figure?<\/h2>\n<p>Generally, we have a feel for which figures are good and which ones are bad, but it can be hard to describe what makes them good or bad. In my opinion a good figure satisfies these conditions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is useful. It helps to explain something that cannot be described easily using text alone.<\/li>\n<li>It doesn\u2019t try to explain too many things at once.<\/li>\n<li>It communicates the idea as effectively as possible\n<ul>\n<li>It uses a good provision of detail, extraneous details are left out so that the diagram is not too complex<\/li>\n<li>It focuses attention on the key features that are important<\/li>\n<li>It is visually appealing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next time you are reading papers or making your own figures think about how well they satisfy these conditions. Check out the figure before and after below.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-814\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-814\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison-300x129.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison-768x330.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison-1024x440.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison-500x215.png 500w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/files\/2017\/04\/figure-comparison.png 1141w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of improvements to: provision of detail, focus and visual appeal\u00a0for a figure. The main change is lightening and thinning the contour lines and rivers so the geology shows up more prominently.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The concept stage<\/h2>\n<p>The first step is to ask yourself what are the key concept\/s?. The next stage is to draw some sketches by hand, trying out various approaches to communicating the concepts (use literature as a source of ideas, but don&#8217;t be tied down with tired old conventions). Show someone your sketch and see if they understand it. Remember other people aren&#8217;t as familiar with your subject as you are.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>TRY THIS: Without looking at literature, sketch a figure demonstrating a key concept in your field of study. Assess your figure or get someone else to assess it against the criteria above for &#8220;What makes a good figure or diagram?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Why sketch by hand first?<\/h3>\n<p>There are various reasons why sketching by hand first is better than straight onto a computer:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>it&#8217;s quicker for concepts.<\/li>\n<li>ideas in our head don&#8217;t always transform smoothly into figures on a page, sketching by hand saves time on bad ideas.<\/li>\n<li>if you can&#8217;t draw a concept by hand you won&#8217;t be able to on a computer, but you will know that a lot faster!<\/li>\n<li>drawing by hand requires that you add detail bit by bit which usually results in a good provision of detail. Whereas starting with existing figures and data, that usually have too much detail, will need to be reduced. Adding items to make a good figure usually works better than removing items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What makes a good figure? Generally, we have a feel for which figures are good and which ones are bad, but it can be hard to describe what makes them good or bad. In my opinion a good figure satisfies these conditions: It is useful. It helps to explain something that cannot be described easily [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10389,"featured_media":0,"parent":803,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-809","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/809\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/si-geology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}