The Art of Visualising Scientific Data (143060-WiSe25/26)

GOALS:

The students learn how to present scientific data in a graphically appealing way. To this end, they work together to develop visualisation strategies and principles as well as how illustrations are designed. Finally, they apply their newly acquired knowledge to their own exemplary data.

CON­TENT:

After an introduction to the topic the students will prepare short (15min) talks on certain topics of the seminar which we will arrange to 2-3 joint lectures including 5mins for Q&A. These topics include:

· Visual Strategies – Intent, Toolbox, Examples

· Visualization Principles

i. Aesthetics, Coordinate Systems, and Colors

ii. Amounts

iii. Distributions

iv. Proportions

v. x-y(-z-t) Relationships

vi. Trends

vii. Geospatial data

viii. Uncertainty

· Figure Design

i. The principle of proportional ink & Handling overlapping points

ii. Pitfalls of color use and Redundant Coding

iii. Multi-panel figures

iv. Titles, captions, tables and the balance of data and context

v. Don’ts

· The right software & file format

Next, the students apply what they have learned to exemplary data from their studies and prepares an informative and compelling figure and an abstract which briefly introduces to the context of the data. They submit their contribution until a communicated deadline. The submissions will be printed and presented in a final session in which the students will grade each other.

EXAM:

Oral