It’s time to create a graphical abstract. At this point, you probably have an idea of what a graphical abstract is, and hopefully you are aware of all its advantages to improve science communication. (If not, go check the previous post. It’s full of reasons to create one).
But, where to start?
There are a lot of things to considered, but let’s take a deep breath and make things simple. Below are 7 advices to help you start creating a good visual to tell your story.
1. Define the main message
First things first, what story do you want to tell?
It is not possible to convey all the information and details of 5 years of research into a single image, so try to keep the message simple. If you had 3 minutes to explain to someone what your job is about, what would you say?
If you don’t know how to identify the key aspects of your story, take a piece of paper and try to answer the following questions in short: What’s your main finding? Why is it relevant? How did you get there? Who are the main characters of your story? What is the context?
Answering these questions will help you decompose your story and identify the key elements and the main message. Remember that this doesn’t mean that all the information obtained by answering these questions needs to be included in the graphical abstract. Consider this just an exercise to define the key aspects of your work, and always try to keep your graphical abstract as simple as you can. Use the minimum amount of information to make the story understandable.
2. The target audience
Now that you have an idea of what you want to say, who are you addressing to?
Understanding the audience is crucial. The content and style of visuals need to be adapted depending on the final application and the target audience. The reason is that each audience has a different level of understanding, so the approach used to tell the story needs to be adapted to every situation.
For example. Let’s imagine you want to explain the mechanism of action of a new therapeutic drug. In this case, if you want to create a graphical abstract for a patient (probably a non-expert) you will need to add more context and less technical details to the story than if your target is an expert physician. For lay audiences, remember also to check the vocabulary to avoid use of technical language.
3. Determine the style of your graphical abstract
Currently, there is no specific format to create a visual abstract, and that, is something we can use in our advantage. The appearance of your graphical abstract will be defined by the type of content, final audience and media.
A schematic diagram, with fewer illustrations, may work better if your goal is to give an overview of your research methods or if you want to explain the design of a clinical trial.
On the other hand, a good combination of scientific illustrations and design is probably the way to go if you want to explain the pathogenesis of a disease.
But, if you want to reach non-expert audiences, why don’t create a graphical abstract in a comic format? Comics allow us to combine metaphors, illustration, and even humor to convey complex scientific information in a fun and engaging way.
4. Consider the technical aspects
Where is your graphical abstract going to be published?
Once you know what’s the main message, who is your target audience and decided which is the best graphical abstract style to tell the story, you need to determine the technical aspects of the figure.
If you want to create a graphical abstract for a scientific journal, remember to check their specifications before you start with the figures. The guidelines will give you information about the size, color specifications, final image resolution, font type and size, and what file formats you need to provide.
With that information, you can now open and set up your preferred graphic design software and start creating the figure. This allows you to design the graphical abstract with the proper characteristics from the beginning.
Technical aspects are also important if you intended to use your creation for other purposes. For instance, if your goal is to share your visual through social media, you will need to check the specifications for each platform to avoid undesired crops and resolution losses.
Spending 5 minutes reviewing the guidelines at the beginning will save you time and minimize the risk of having to start over.
5. Plan your layout and start sketching
It’s time to translate ideas into images.
Consider the main message that you have defined in the previous steps, how can you translate those ideas into a story? Who are the protagonists (cells, proteins, …)? What challenges do they have to face (stages, processes, …)? How does the story end (what is the conclusion)?
Stories are typically composed of an introduction, a middle, and an end. Hence, when creating a graphical abstract, you will need to organize the information in a way it helps to easily follow the story from beginning to end.
Once you have defined your story, try to organize the content considering the standard reading direction, i.e., from top to bottom and from left to right. This will help the reader to navigate through the story and will prevent the getting lost feeling.
Now it’s time to start sketching. Before turning on your computer, take a piece of scratch paper and a pencil and start composing your graphical abstract. You don’t need to be an artist for that. Use simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles, and some lines.
The idea is to decide what are the main visual and text elements that will be part of the final figure. During this process, you can try different layouts to see which one is the best to tell the story.
6. Pay attention to design
Once you have defined your sketch, it is time to polish it using the software of your choice (PowerPoint, Keynotes, Illustrator, Inkscape, …). At this point, applying some design concepts to your graphical abstract will not only improve its aesthetics, but it will make your message more clear.
There is a lot to say about design, and it will be further covered in future posts, but in order to have something to start working with here are some recommendations:
- Limit your color pallet. Pick 2 or 3 main colors and then, if you want, complement the illustration with light to dark shades of those colors. Use the vibrant colors for the elements you want to remark (i.e., the main characters of your story), and the neutrals for those less relevant things (like the background).
- Assess the size of your texts. Make sure they all are big enough to be read.
- Establish hierarchies and be consistent. If you add text to your graphical abstract with different purposes (titles, names, …) choose a specific format (size, bold, italics,…) for each category and keep it.
- If necessary, use additional elements like arrows or numbers to guide readers and reinforce your narrative.
- Avoid the use of legends. They will force the reader to go back and forth to be able to understand the figure. It’s better to add a label close to each element the first time they appear in the composition.
7. Declutter, ask for feedback, and let it rest
You are almost done, but first it’s time to refine your graphical abstract.
We often feel the need to add as much information as we can to ensure the reader will receive an accurate idea of the whole story. But, adding too many details to the graphical abstract produce the opposite effect, they tend to create confusion.
Look again to the graphical abstract that you have just created and try to identify if there is something that can be eliminated without affecting the main message. If so, just delete it.
A graphical abstract can’t summarize the entire content of your article, so keep it simple. Remember that all the additional information related with the methodology and other relevant data can be already found in the body of your paper.
Before considering your figure done, try to get some feedback. Sometimes, being too immersed in your work can alter your perspective. For instance, you might be not explaining something clearly enough because you already understand it very well.
To avoid these misunderstandings, show your creation to different people that represents your target audience. For example: other persons of the team, other scientist not related to your research area, some friends or relatives if you are targeting lay audiences, … If they are able to understand your story, you have a good visual.
Finally, take a break and let it rest. After few days, take a look at your graphical abstract with fresh eyes and check how it works. Is there something missing or in surplus? Is it clear? Is your story easy to understand?
After applying these finishing touches, you will be done. Congrats, your graphical abstract is finally ready!
If creating a graphic abstract represents a task too tedious for you, don’t hesitate to contact us! At Catalyzing Science we love the challenge of translating scientific ideas into engaging visuals. You can also check the portfolio to see some previous work.