Effective Visual Communication of Science

You will learn the Seyens Method™—a comprehensive design philosophy, process, and set of strategies tailored specifically for scientists to visually communicate your own complex ideas so your messages are effortlessly understood by scientists or non-scientists.

It is a structured, no fluff, memorable, easy to follow, useful and fun training that will empower and enable you to create effective images, slides, posters, and grants. You will immediately apply the new skills to communicate your own science, draw a graphical abstract and discuss it with your peers and receive actionable feedback on your images and slides.

• Target group: Scientists (from PhD students, postdocs, to group leaders)
• Group size: max. 18

Content:

Self-study module—Mandatory Fundamentals, Slides, and Homework (5 h)

• Fundamental Visual Communication: understand how human visual perception and psychology shape our interpretation of visual information. Discover a science-based design method to visualize your research, making it easily comprehensible. We will cover strategic use of layout, eye-flow, colors, and typography applied to all types of scientific images.
• Slides, Posters, Grants: you will learn how to apply the Seyens Method™ design philosophy and strategies introduced in the Fundamentals to slides, posters, and grants. This will give you a holistic approach that builds from the first principles, makes sense and is easy to remember and apply.
• Homework: submit your images and slides to receive personalized feedback.

Live Workshop—On Zoom (4.5 h)

• Recap and Q&A: an effective review of self-study topics and optional 1-on-1 consulting with facilitator to address your individual challenges.
• Feedback on your submitted materials: you will get actionable suggestions on how to improve your own scientific images and slides.
• Graphical abstract drawing exercise: you will draw a sketch of your research
• Peer-instruction group discussion: you will give and receive informed and structured feedback to improve yours’ and other participants’ images.

About the lecturer

Dr. Jernej Zupanc, Founder of Seyens Ltd.

My mission is to equip and empower scientists to effectivelly visually communicate and make an impact with their research. I study eclectically, always looking for approaches from different fields that can be easily applied to science presentation. I distill the principles and practices into easily understandable and enjoyable learning experiences. Time is our most valuable resource and I aim for the training to be a worthwhile investment for participants.

I hold a PhD in Computer Science from University of Ljubljana, am a Fulbright alumnus, worked as a grant evaluator for the EC and later consulted on over € 20M in successful EU grant applications. My journey with Seyens began in 2013, and by 2016, I fully dedicated myself to it. Since then, training scientists has become my sole professional passion.