Points of View

Points of View is a monthly column published by Nature Methods that deals with the fundamental aspects of visual presentation applicable to anyone who works with visual representation of data. The column author, Bang Wong, is an AMI member and the creative director at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Each month he focuses on a particular aspect of data presentation or visualization and provides easy-to-apply tips on how to create effective presentations. Through special arrangements with Nature Publishing Group, the current column of each month will be made freely accessible for a period of one month.

Current Column:

Novemebr 2011: Salience to relevance
In science communication, it is critical that visual information be interpreted efficiently and correctly. The discordance between components of an image that are most noticeable and those that are most relevant or important can compromise the effectiveness of a presentation. This discrepancy can cause viewers to mistakenly pay attention to regions of the image that are not relevant. Ultimately, the misdirected attention can negatively impact comprehension. Read more…

Past Columns:

• October 2011: Layout
• September 2011: Arrows
• August 2011: Simplify to clarify
• July 2011: Avoiding color
• June 2011: Color blindness
• May 2011: The overview figure
• April 2011: Typography
• March 2011: Points of review (part 2)
• February 2011: Points of review (part 1)
• January 2011: Negative space
• December 2010: Gestalt Principles (Part 2)
• November 2010: Gestalt Principles (Part 1)
• October 2010: Salience
• September 2010: Design of Data Figures
• August 2010: Color coding