Simplify, simplify, simplify. That's one of the key points emphasized by data visualization designer Michael Stamper, who shared his expertise September 21 in an Office of Research and Innovation workshop.

    Stamper, who is part of Virginia Tech Library’s Data Services team, is a self-proclaimed “one-stop design shop.” He brought that expertise to workshop participants.

    Stamper works with researchers to help them create visual designs and says he enjoys going through the design process. He described this as a cyclical process, working closely alongside clients in a trial-and-error process as they find what works best to make visuals tailored to their needs. “It’s good,” Stamper joked about the iterative and responsive process. “I won’t have to worry about AI taking my job.”

    Translating this back-and-forth process into solid visual design work requires a strong grasp of the basic elements of design, Stamper said. Such elements include information hierarchies, typography, use of colors and patterns, and layout. When used effectively, these principles come together to explain complex topics in a way that words cannot.

A graphic for a research cycle visualization.
A graphic for a research cycle visualization.

    Stamper displayed a number of different examples generated in Illustrator and Gephi. He walked the audience through each one, describing the do’s and don’t's of this kind of illustrative work, such as the anatomy of an effective chart. 

    “Elements like gridlines, axis labels, and colors can all be simplified to highlight what is most important, relevant, and interesting,” Stamper noted.

    A visual design expert need not rely on skill alone; there are many helpful tools and programs that can assist in bringing these ideas to life. Stamper cites Adobe Illustrator and Gephi, a program which helps visualize data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. It can be used to create data webs, which help highlight connections among data that may otherwise go unnoticed. 

    The event wrapped up with a final list of helpful, beginner-friendly design programs. These mainly browser-based programs include Canva, Tableau, Venngage, and Piktochart.  

    “I can’t say which is the best,” says Stamper on choosing a platform, and he invites researchers and designers to experiment with each and decide for themselves based on their specific needs.

    If you’d like to view Stamper's talk yourself, it is available as a Virginia Tech tutorial.

By Maia Mirro, Center for Communicating Science student intern