Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • This Month
  • Published:

Points of view: Points of review (part 1)

Nature Methods volume 8, page 101 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

My goal over the next two months is to show concretely how scientific figures can benefit from design principles. I will review concepts from past columns by applying them to several published figures.

In the design of common objects, such as a door, when a handle is used many people will mistakenly pull even if the door is to be opened by pushing. When the handle is replaced with a flat plate, which affords pushing, people will know to push. When dealing with figures, we depend on visual cues. We want our figure's layout to express its underlying meaning.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Layouts can express meaning.
Figure 2: Visual structure that matches the message.

References

  1. Tamplin, O. & Zon, L. Nat. Methods 7, 600 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 863 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 5 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Peck, D. et al. Genome Biol. 7, R61 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 941 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 773 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bang Wong is the creative director of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.,

    Bang Wong

Authors
  1. Bang Wong
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wong, B. Points of view: Points of review (part 1). Nat Methods 8, 101 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0211-101

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0211-101

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing AI and Robotics

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics