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design + visualization

VIZBI 2013 Keynote

Visual Design Principles—Communicating Effectively

This talk happened on Thursday, Mar 21st 2013 at VIZBI 2013 at the Broad Institute in Boston.

How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. —Isaac Asimov (The Roving Mind)

For more visualization and design resources, see my VIZBI 2012 tutorials, Nature Methods Points of View column, and rant about colors.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Do not allow encoding or other design choices to hijaack your message. Each element on the page must meaningfully contribute to your figure.

presentation video

The video will be posted at vizbi.org.

presentation slides

Slides are available as PDF and keynote (zipped).

Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
Martin Krzywinski - VIZBI 2013 Keynote - Visual Design Principles
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A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measurable. He lives with data that cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once. The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible. He becomes an equivalent of scientist, in the act of examining and sorting the things popping in [to his head], finding the marks of remote similarity, points of distant relationship, tiny irregularities that indicate that this one is really the same as that one over there only more important. Gauging the fit, he can meticulously place pieces of the universe together, in geometric configurations that are as beautiful and balanced as crystals. —Lewis Thomas (The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher)

breakout session—making good figures

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Sketch notes by the inimitable Francis Rowland from our breakout group. The question was: what do you need to make good figures? (PDF)

small, medium and big data visualization

If you're asking how to visualize big data, first make sure you're doing a good job on small and medium data. Each scale requires good design.

Do not expect to use one way
to tell many stories

Also consider that there is a very large number of combinations of data sets, hypotheses and possible patterns. Because of this, you cannot expect to use one way to tell many stories. There is no Holy Grail of big data visualization. But there are many good questions to ask and practices to follow that make up a process which can help you get there.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Medium data visualization. This is what happens when you show the data (a strategy that works for small data), instead of explaining it. Yup, we need to work on this too. (A) Qi X et al. J Biotech 144:43 (2012) (Saturation-Mutagenesis in Two Positions Distant from Active Site of a Klebsiella pneumoniae Glycerol Dehydratase Identifies Some Highly Active Mutants) (B) Alekseyev, M.A. et al. Genome Res 19:943 (2009) (Breakpoint graphs and ancestral genome reconstructions)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Big data visualization. Yes, data sets are growing but are visual and cognitive abilities are not. There are many data sets, each requiring its own approach. You cannot use one way to tell many stories. Lewis SN et al. PLoS ONE 6:e27175 (2011) (Prediction of Disease and Phenotype Associations from Genome-Wide Association Studies)
news + thoughts

Neural network primer

Mon 06-02-2023

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. —Francis Bacon

In the first of a series of columns about neural networks, we introduce them with an intuitive approach that draws from our discussion about logistic regression.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Neural network primer. (read)

Simple neural networks are just a chain of linear regressions. And, although neural network models can get very complicated, their essence can be understood in terms of relatively basic principles.

We show how neural network components (neurons) can be arranged in the network and discuss the ideas of hidden layers. Using a simple data set we show how even a 3-neuron neural network can already model relatively complicated data patterns.

Derry, A., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2023) Points of significance: Neural network primer. Nature Methods 20.

Background reading

Lever, J., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2016) Points of significance: Logistic regression. Nature Methods 13:541–542.

Cell Genomics cover

Mon 16-01-2023

Our cover on the 11 January 2023 Cell Genomics issue depicts the process of determining the parent-of-origin using differential methylation of alleles at imprinted regions (iDMRs) is imagined as a circuit.

Designed in collaboration with with Carlos Urzua.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Our Cell Genomics cover depicts parent-of-origin assignment as a circuit (volume 3, issue 1, 11 January 2023). (more)

Akbari, V. et al. Parent-of-origin detection and chromosome-scale haplotyping using long-read DNA methylation sequencing and Strand-seq (2023) Cell Genomics 3(1).

Browse my gallery of cover designs.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
A catalogue of my journal and magazine cover designs. (more)

Science Advances cover

Thu 05-01-2023

My cover design on the 6 January 2023 Science Advances issue depicts DNA sequencing read translation in high-dimensional space. The image showss 672 bases of sequencing barcodes generated by three different single-cell RNA sequencing platforms were encoded as oriented triangles on the faces of three 7-dimensional cubes.

More details about the design.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
My Science Advances cover that encodes sequence onto hypercubes (volume 9, issue 1, 6 January 2023). (more)

Kijima, Y. et al. A universal sequencing read interpreter (2023) Science Advances 9.

Browse my gallery of cover designs.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
A catalogue of my journal and magazine cover designs. (more)

Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring

Mon 21-11-2022

If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you’re running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer. —Alex Honnold, American rock climber

In a follow-up to our Survival analysis — time-to-event data and censoring article, we look at how regression can be used to account for additional risk factors in survival analysis.

We explore accelerated failure time regression (AFTR) and the Cox Proportional Hazards model (Cox PH).

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. (read)

Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Cooper, Z., Trinh, Q., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2022) Points of significance: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. Nature Methods 19.


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