Visual Strategies for Biological Data

Scientific communication relies heavily on graphical figure design, but training and guidelines on data visualization techniques for biological research have, until recently, received relatively little attention. In 2010, Nature Methods started publishing a monthly column (Points of View) offering researchers practical advice on scientific data visualization. This collection brings together all 38 articles published through February 2015.

Bang Wong, an AMI member and the creative director at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, authored many of the articles.

The 40-page PDF can be purchased for $7.99 at the Scientific American store.

Table of Contents:

3 Color coding. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 573 (2010).
4 Design of data figures. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 665 (2010).
5 Salience. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 773 (2010).
6 Gestalt principles (part 1). Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 863 (2010).
7 Gestalt principles (part 2). Wong, B. Nat. Methods 7, 941 (2010).
8 Negative space. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 5 (2011).
9 Points of review (part 1). Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 101 (2011).
10 Points of review (part 2). Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 189 (2011).
11 Typography. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 277 (2011).
12 The overview figure. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 365 (2011).
13 Color blindness. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 441 (2011).
14 Avoiding color. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 525 (2011).
15 Simplify to clarify. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 611 (2011).
16 Arrows. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 701 (2011).
17 Layout. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 783 (2011).
18 Salience to relevance. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 889 (2011).
19 The design process. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 8, 987 (2011).
20 Data exploration. Shoresh, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 5 (2012).
21 Networks. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 115 (2012).
22 Heat maps. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 213 (2012).
23 Integrating data. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 315 (2012).
24 Representing the genome. Nielsen, C. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 423 (2012).
25 Managing deep data in genome browsers. Nielsen, C. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 521 (2012).
26 Representing genomic structural variation. Nielsen, C. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 631 (2012).
27 Mapping quantitative data to color. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 769 (2012).
28 Into the third dimension. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 851 (2012).
29 Power of the plane. Gehlenborg, N. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 935 (2012).
30 Pencil and paper. Wong, B. & Schmidt Kjaergaard, R. Nat. Methods 9, 1037 (2012).
31 Visualizing biological data. Wong, B. Nat. Methods 9, 1131 (2012).
32 Axes, ticks and grids. Krzywinski, M. Nat. Methods 10, 183 (2013).
33 Labels and callouts. Krzywinski, M. Nat. Methods 10, 275 (2013).
34 Elements of visual style. Krzywinski, M. Nat. Methods 10, 371 (2013).
35 Plotting symbols. Krzywinski, M. & Wong, B. Nat. Methods 10, 451 (2013).
36 Multidimensional data. Krzywinski, M. & Savig, E. Nat. Methods 10, 595 (2013).
37 Storytelling. Krzywinski, M. & Cairo, A. Nat. Methods 10, 687 (2013).
38 Bar charts and box plots. Streit, M. & Gehlenborg, N. Nat. Methods 11, 117 (2014).
39 Sets and intersections. Lex, A. & Gehlenborg, N. Nat. Methods 11, 779 (2014).
40 Temporal data. Streit, M. & Gehlenborg, N. Nat. Methods 12, 97 (2015).