Slides from my talk at Nature Jobs Career Expo in London 2018

1. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Design for
Researchers
Sven Laqua, PhD

2. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
About myself
Academia
• PhD @ UCL on Human-Computer Interaction 5 years
• Post-doc @ UCL 1 year
Industry
• Head of User Experience @ Digital Science 7 years

3. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Outline
1. How to start thinking about design?
2. How to apply design thinking?

4. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
What is Design Thinking

5. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
What is Design Thinking
Breaking it down…
Empathise Define Ideate Prototype Evaluate

6. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
What is Design Thinking
Breaking it down…
Empathise Define Ideate Prototype Evaluate

7. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Who
are you trying to communicate to?

8. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Understand your Audience
Other
researchers

9. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Understand your Audience
Other
researchers
Practitioners
Media
Potential
employers
The public Students

10. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
What
are you trying to communicate?

11. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Understand your Audience
Other
researchers
Practitioners
New research findings, your process,
the data, next steps, etc.
à
A brief project overview, key findings, etc.à
Media/
The public
Why does your work matter?à

12. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How
are you trying to communicate it?

13. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)

14. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)
Teaching
new abilities
(e.g. a lecture)

15. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)
Teaching
new abilities
(e.g. a lecture)
Affecting
new actions
(e.g. pitch for funding)

16. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)
Teaching
new abilities
(e.g. a lecture)
Affecting
new actions
(e.g. pitch for funding)
Informing
new beliefs
(e.g. a TED talk)

17. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)
Teaching
new abilities
(e.g. a lecture)
Affecting
new actions
(e.g. pitch for funding)
Informing
new beliefs
(e.g. a TED talk)
Report
Explanation
Pitch
Drama

18. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story…
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, Dan Roam
Report Explanation Pitch Drama
Conveying
new information
(e.g. a team update)
Teaching
new abilities
(e.g. a lecture)
Affecting
new actions
(e.g. pitch for funding)
Informing
new beliefs
(e.g. a TED talk)

19. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell a Story
Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make
Extraordinary Presentations
Dan Roam

20. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell your story?

21. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell your story
Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18
countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study
The relationship between macronutrients and cardiovascular disease and mortality is controversial. Most available data are from
European and North American populations where nutrition excess is more likely, so their applicability to other populations is unclear.
The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study is a large, epidemiological cohort study of individuals aged 35–70 years
(enrolled between Jan 1, 2003, and March 31, 2013) in 18 countries with a median followup of 7·4 years (IQR 5·3–9·3). Dietary intake of
135335 individuals was recorded using validated food frequency questionnaires. The primary outcomes were total mortality and major
cardiovascular events (fatal cardiovascular disease, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure). Secondary outcomes were
all myocardial infarctions, stroke, cardiovascular disease mortality, and non-cardiovascular disease mortality. Participants were
categorised into quintiles of nutrient intake (carbohydrate, fats, and protein) based on percentage of energy provided by nutrients. We
assessed the associations between consumption of carbohydrate, total fat, and each type of fat with cardiovascular disease and total
mortality. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) using a multivariable Cox frailty model with random intercepts to account for centre
clustering. During follow-up, we documented 5796 deaths and 4784 major cardiovascular disease events. Higher carbohydrate intake
was associated with an increased risk of total mortality (highest [quintile 5] vs lowest quintile [quintile 1] category, HR 1·28 …

22. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell your story
Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18
countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study
The relationship between macronutrients and cardiovascular disease and mortality is controversial. Most available data are from
European and North American populations where nutrition excess is more likely, so their applicability to other populations is unclear.
The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study is a large, epidemiological cohort study of individuals aged 35–70 years
(enrolled between Jan 1, 2003, and March 31, 2013) in 18 countries with a median followup of 7·4 years (IQR 5·3–9·3). Dietary intake of
135335 individuals was recorded using validated food frequency questionnaires. The primary outcomes were total mortality and major
cardiovascular events (fatal cardiovascular disease, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure). Secondary outcomes were
all myocardial infarctions, stroke, cardiovascular disease mortality, and non-cardiovascular disease mortality. Participants were
categorised into quintiles of nutrient intake (carbohydrate, fats, and protein) based on percentage of energy provided by nutrients. We
assessed the associations between consumption of carbohydrate, total fat, and each type of fat with cardiovascular disease and total
mortality. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) using a multivariable Cox frailty model with random intercepts to account for centre
clustering. During follow-up, we documented 5796 deaths and 4784 major cardiovascular disease events. Higher carbohydrate intake
was associated with an increased risk of total mortality (highest [quintile 5] vs lowest quintile [quintile 1] category, HR 1·28 …
Conveying
new information

23. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to tell your story
• Headline & Abstract
Conveying
new information

24. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
• Headline & Abstract
How to tell your story Conveying
new information
Teaching
new abilities
Affecting
new actions
Informing
new beliefs

25. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
• Write an elevator pitch for each audience
• Build out your stories based on how
they relate to and impact each audience
How to tell your story Conveying
new information
Teaching
new abilities
Affecting
new actions
Informing
new beliefs

26. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Or others will tell your story for you
Want a healthier heart? Eat a steak [Opinion]
I'm a cardiologist — and I encourage patients to eat red meat.
This advice defies conventional wisdom. For decades, nutritionists
and physicians have urged people to limit consumption of red meat
and other fatty foods, which were thought to cause heart disease.
But new studies debunk this conventional wisdom. Indeed, it now
looks like low-quality carbohydrates — not saturated fats — are
driving America's heart disease epidemic. It's time to stop
demonizing steak.
The medical community frowns upon the kinds of saturated fats
found in meat, dairy and coconut oil. The American Heart Association
recommends avoiding red meat — and if people insist on eating it,
they should “select the leanest cuts available.” Federal nutritional
guidelines suggest that less than 10 percent of one's daily calories
come from saturated fats, while the AHA recommends even less.

27. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Share your research…
• Use Social Media to tell the story of your research
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Medium
• Use Open Science tools
• Make your data available online (figshare, …)
• Get an ORCID
• A persistent, unique identifier for researchers

28. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…

29. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Think about the different audiences for your research

30. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Think about the different audiences for your research
2. Tailor your story to each of your audiences

31. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Think about the different audiences for your research
2. Tailor your story to each of your audiences
3. Share your stories!

32. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to design your story?

33. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour
PANTONE 18-3838 Ultra Violet

34. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

35. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

36. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

37. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
https://contrast-ratio.com

38. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

39. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

40. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
https://contrast-ratio.com

41. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

42. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour Contrast
Evaluation of Artery Visualizations
for Heart Disease Diagnosis

43. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
https://contrast-ratio.com

44. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Colour
Blindness

45. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
www.susielu.com/data-viz/viz-palette

46. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
www.susielu.com/data-viz/viz-palette

47. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
www.susielu.com/data-viz/viz-palette

48. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
www.susielu.com/data-viz/viz-palette

49. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
www.susielu.com/data-viz/viz-palette

50. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…

51. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Choose colours with sufficient contrast

52. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Choose colours with sufficient contrast
2. Keep in mind the effects of colour blindness

53. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Typography

54. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

55. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

56. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

57. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Times-New-Roman (18pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Arial (16.5pt)

58. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Times-New-Roman (18pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Arial (16.5pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Arial (18pt)

59. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Times-New-Roman (18pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Arial (16.5pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Arial (18pt)
Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students Verdana (18pt)

60. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right
Gill Sans Fira Sans

61. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right
Gill Sans Fira Sans

62. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right
Gill Sans Fira Sans

63. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right

64. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right

65. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right

66. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right

67. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Turn right Turn right

68. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…

69. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Use sans-serif over serif typefaces

70. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To sum up…
1. Use sans-serif over serif typefaces
2. For small text, use typefaces with taller lower-case
letters (x-height)

71. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Universal Design Principles

72. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Signal to Noise ratio
Simulated ECG: Signal denoising using SASS, Ivan Selesnick

73. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Signal to Noise ratio

74. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

75. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

76. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

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78. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

79. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

80. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

81. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

82. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

83. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

84. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
The Flexibility/Usability trade-off
More flexibleMore usable
Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell

85. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

86. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

87. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

88. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
How to choose
the best graph type?

89. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Types of data
Categorical data
(Qualitative)
Numerical data
(Quantitative)
Nominal Ordinal Continuous Discrete
Named categories
”red, blue, green”
Categories with
implied order
”low, medium, high”
Any numeric value
”3.14159”
Only particular
numbers
”1, 2, 3, 4, 5”

90. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Pie charts

91. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Donut charts

92. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
A poor pie chart
Sick days

93. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
An unacceptable pie chart
Sick days

94. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Pie chart vs. Bar chart
Sick days
Sick days

95. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Bar charts

96. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Bar charts

97. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Dot charts

98. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Scatterplots

99. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Bubble charts

100. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo

101. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Comparing data

102. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Comparing data

103. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Comparing data & Colour consistency

104. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To wrap up…

105. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To wrap up…
Good design is about more than Aesthetics

106. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
To wrap up…
Good design is about more than Aesthetics

107. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
“Evaluation of Artery Visualizations for Heart Disease Diagnosis”
IEEE InfoVis 2011 and be published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

108. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
“Evaluation of Artery Visualizations for Heart Disease Diagnosis”
IEEE InfoVis 2011 and be published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
39%
accurate
91%
accurate

109. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Good design saves lives!
Stephen
Few
Edward R.
Tufte
David
McCandless

110. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Thank you

111. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
Types of colour schemes

112. Design for Researchers, Sven Laqua @ux4science. #design4researchers Career Expo
http://colorbrewer2.org