EFFECTIVE VISUAL COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION IN ENGINEERING

By Clayton Chiarelott UT Writing Center CLEAR, CONCISE, & PRECISE

…A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts…

(Strunk & White, 2000/1935, p. 22) TWO WAYS OF DISPLAYING RESULTS

Tables Figures • Numerical values and textual information • Any type of illustration other than a table. organized into columns and rows. • Includes charts, graphs, photographs, diagrams, etc. PURPOSE OF DISPLAYING RESULTS

• Exploration • Communication • Calculation • Storage • Decoration In scientific publications, the communication function is the most important. Anything that interferes with communication is a problem BAD TABLE

What's wrong with this one? • Too many digits as indicated by the estimated standard errors • Ending zeros were dropped. • If the digits in 0.02229 were meaningful, then 0.02100 should be given rather than 0.021. What should have been done? • Cite standard errors rather than variances • Use the standard errors to guide you regarding which digits to present; don't include digits that are just noise. • Don't drop ending zeros when they are meaningful. TEXT ALIGNMENT IN TABLES MISLEADING FIGURES

Distortions • Sometimes distortions occur because of errors. • Sometimes because the artist tried to be clever. • Sometimes because they don’t understand statistics. The designer of the chart, Christine Chan, explained her decision on her Twitter feed, saying, "I prefer to show deaths in negative terms (inverted). It's a preference really, can be shown either way." MISLEADING FIGURES: LIE FACTOR

• Ed Tufte of Yale University coined the term “lie factor” to describe the amount of distortion in a graph • Defined as: = 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡푡𝑡𝑡 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠�𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑡𝑡푡𝑡𝑡 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔� • Lie𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿 factor𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 > 1 = size of𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 the 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜effect𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 is𝑒𝑒 𝑒𝑒exaggerated𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠�𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 • Don’t take too seriously; it’s a satirical formula MISLEADING FIGURES: LIE FACTOR DATA INK RATIO

• Above all else show data. • Maximize the data-ink ratio. • Erase non-data-ink. • Erase redundant data-ink. • Revise and edit Data–ink ratio = 1 DATA INK RATIO CHARTJUNK

• Interior decoration of graphics that doesn’t tell the viewer anything new (Tufte, 1983) • Non-data-ink or redundant data-ink JUST SAY NO TO 3D GRAPHS JUST SAY NO TO 3D GRAPHS Tu f t e considers this one of the worst graphs ever Age because Structure • it only displays 5 data of College points, Enrollment • it wastes a lot of space, • the top half is inexplicably inverted, • it’s 3D, and • it has multiple clashing colors. PRESENTATIONS

• Typography • Color • Layout • Organization TYPOGRAPHY

• Use a sans serif typeface such as Arial Use boldface (Arial) • Use type sizes at least 24 points (smaller font is okay for references) • Avoid presenting text in all capital letters TYPOGRAPHY

• Slide from the contractor Morton- Thiokol’s presentation to NASA about the Challenger Shuttle, which later exploded. • Capital letters are difficult to read • Too many words for the audience to comprehend COLOR

• Use either light type against a dark background or dark type against a light background • Avoid red–green, blue–yellow combinations (many people cannot distinguish) LAYOUT

• Keep text blocks, such as headlines and listed items, to no more than two lines • Keep lists to two, three, or four items; make listed items parallel; avoid sublists, if possible • Be generous with white space • Limit the number of items on each slide • Limit the number of slides so that you can dedicate at least one minute to each ORGANIZATION

Visual depiction of the organization of a scientific presentation. • The speaker begins with the big picture, • focuses on the work in the middle, and • comes back to the big picture in the end – so what? IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION

• Visual communication is an essential skill in today’s competitive economy where marketing and presentations are important ingredients for success, for both individual and enterprises. • The marketplace requires workers with multi-disciplinary skills, including effective visual communicators • In some cases, effective visual communication can save lives (e.g., Challenger) FURTHER READING

• Michael Alley The Craft of Scientific Presentations • Edward Tufte • Beautiful Evidence • The Visual Display of Quantitative Information • Envisioning Information • Visual Explanations