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Design Method
Design process formula:

Deliverables for concept and prototyping steps:

Illustration
Presentat ion
Poster

Concept

Prototype

General idea sketch

Detailed scetch-all information

blocks are at their places

Story outline:
Nested list of messages
Slide structure

Slide wireframes-ev ery slide has

it's message and necessary
information blocks

General layout sketch

Layout wireframe-all information

blocks filled with real
textual content

A zine about prototyping published by IDEO: zine.ideo.com

2

Graphic design
Basic composition principles:
1.

2.

3.

Dominance
Balance
Proximity

4.
5.

Alignment
White space

Optical
center

Typographic terms:
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.
7.

Font - an identifying name given to a full characters set

Typeface - a specific design of letterforms, a gimmick which distinguish this
typeface from any other.
Serif - a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. A typeface
with serifs is called a serif (or Roman) typeface. A typeface without serifs is called
sans serif, from the French sans, meaning "without" (also Grotesque or Gothic)
Text typeface - typeface designed specifically to work in small sizes and in body
for the most part (average size 5-14). Display typeface is, as an opposite, a typeface
designed for headlines and big sizes in general
Letterspacing (or tracking) - horizontal spacing between characters in a line
Leading (or line-height in web design) - vertical distance between lines of type
Body - text making up the main content of your design

Good typefaces for every occasion:

Lava Pro
e

SYSTEM

Ge org ia
Charter

Helvetica
Op en Sans
Roboto

FREE

FREE

Tips fo r good typograph y:

1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Text determines typography

Limit yourself to 1, maximum 2 fonts. Use font weights and sizes to form
styles hierarchy
Start designing with a body text if there is a significant amount of it,
then design the rest
No text typefaces in display sizes and vice versa
Do not use close font sizes, like 10 and 11, make them differ more
Always increase letterspacin g in ALL CAPS lines
Use Fibonacci sequence to decide your text sizes scale, for exanple:
5 8 13 21 34 55 89

8.

Keep it simple

Work ing in Adobe Illust rator

tv1aking a quick grid in Adobe Illustrator step-by-st ep:
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

6.

Create new document with desired dimensions

Create a rectangle the size of the document
From the upper menu select Object > Path > Offset path and type in your margin
value (with a minus before the number)
Delete the bigger rectangle
Select the smaller rectangle and from the upper menu select Object > Path > Split
into grid. In the dialogue window check Preview checkbox and then play with
numbers of rows, columns and gutters until you will be satisfied with the result
Select all new rectangles and press Cmd+5 (Ctrl+5). Your grid is ready

Visual Science 2016

Working with color

Adobe Color CC color.adobe.com
Use this instrument to explore pre-made color schemes and create your own.
It also integrates with your Adobe products.

Research and information analysis

Many tips on using Pubtv1ed and other databases search can be found
at NCB I You Tube account at youtube.com/user/NCBINLtv1
Tools for searching NCBI that are worth working with:
1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Multiple sub-databases
Filters
Citation matchers
Advanced search/query builders/
boolean operators
Me SH

6.

7.
8.
9.
10.

Field descriptions and tags

PMC images
NCBI Bookshelf
Search details
MyNCBI collections and searches
with e-mail notifications

Communication with scientists

Tips on writing e-mails with questions:
1.

2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Write a clear topic

Introduce yourself briefly
Tell the purpose of your letter at the beginning
Use (bullet) lists when you have several questions
Don't write long / complicated texts
Be polite
You can actually send the same email again without changing anything if it was lost
at the first time

Inform ation system atizat ion

Tools for making document s, tables, slides and notes online:
1.

2.

3.

Google Docs
Yandex Disc

4.

Evernote
One Note

Project managem ent and collaborat ion tools:

1.

2.

basecamp.co m
trello.com

3.
4.

5.
6.

apps.google .ru
bitrix24.ru

podio.com
zetuniverse. com

Tools for making mind maps and shareable boards:

1.

2.

realtimeboa rd.com
coggle.it

3.
4.

mindiet.com
mindmeiste r .com

5.
6.

conceptboar d.com
mural.ly

Collection s of links and reference managers :

1.

2.

channelkit.c om
paperpile.co m

3.
4.

zotero.org
mendeley.co m

What make s a good scient ific illustr ation?

Good illustration :
1.

2.

can be read through easily

(not only by its author)
needs no explanations . It could be
discussed and explained but does not
require additional materials to tell the
story. Title, caption and the
illustration itself are sufficient

3.
4.

5.

reflects the original author's idea

should not lead to misconcepti ons,
wrong interpretatio ns, misundersta nding
should explain the idea better (more
easy, fast and clear) than words
behind it

Illustr ation design proce ss

1.

2.

Draw fast. Use as much paper as you want. Try to make 10+ different concepts of
your idea
Story, concept and sketch make from Bo to 90% of all result. Any good designer who
doesn't specialize on scientific illustration will not make your illustration good if it
lacks story and good concept

c;~ Visual Science 2016

What

Concept &
Sc etching

Research

Idea

Why

Collect information

Decide what you

are going to tell
your audience

"Distill" over your idea:

tonns of iterations,
tonns of paper,
no limitations

Make your scetch

look beautiful

How

Spreadsheets

Imagination

Pen & Paper

Various CG

Docs

Napkin & lipstick

Mindmaps

Pen & Paper

Bookmark collections

Whatever else

Design

software

etc

Basic principles behind good sketch

and illustration
Principles for grouping:
1.
2.

3.
4.

Similarity - color, size and shape can help to organize data objects into categories
Proximity - we tend to group objects placed close to each other
Connection & enclosure - grouping by connection and enclosure leads us to
associate objects as a unified whole
Visual completion - since we have a strong tendency to see shapes as continuous,
we fill in gaps with visual cues found elsewhere on the page

Principles for salience. Add contrast using:

1.

2.

Color
Size

3.
4.

Orientation
Shape

5.
6.

Special marks
Motion

Principles for layering:

1.

2.

3.

Color saturation (make objects on background layers less saturated)

Color hue (use cold shades to depict distant objects)
Depth blur (make distant objects blurry)

Principles for composition:

1.

2.

Try using golden section or 'rule of thirds' to achieve balanced composition

Elements placed along the lines and especially on the intersections
(the so-called power points in 'rule of thirds') become more visually prominent

Prese ntatio n design

Books on presentati on design by Nancy Duarte:
duarte.co m/perspec tive/#boo ks
Alexey Kapterev
1.

2.

Video about storytelling for presentation s youtube.com /watch?v=Eg 2SUEAjvJ4

Presentation Secrets mann-ivano v-ferber.ru/ promo/prese ntation/

Inform ation design princ iples by Tufte

Books by Edward Tufte edwardtuf te.com/tu fte/books ei
1.

2.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Envisioning Information

Visua lisatio ns typolo gy (Type s of plots

and graph s in scient ific article s)
Tools for making graphs, plots and data visualizati on:
1.

2.
3.

plot.ly
chartgo.com
hplotvar.com

4.

5.
6.

onlinechartt ool.com
draw.io
cytoscape.o rg

7.

graph-tool.s kewed.de

Website about visualization and graphs for scientists by Bang Wong, the creative director
of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: clearscience .info/wp

Scient ific visual isatio n tools

Tutorials:
1.

2.
3.

Blender basics (in Russian) habrahabr.r u/post/2725 19/

Animation tutorials in Gael McGill collection molecularm ovies.com/l earning/
USCF Chimera cgl.ucsf.edu /chimera/tut orials.html