Design science workshop evaluation leaflet by Design Science

Design workshop for researchers Evaluation report

Produced by Design Science for the Wellcome Trust www.design-science.co.uk

Evaluation report 1 Overview

2 Aims and objectives

3 Front end evaluation

A. Cheltenham

B. LSHTM

C. Imperial

Summary of lessons learnt from front-end evaluation

4 The workshop days 5 Post workshop evaluation

17 20

A. Cheltenham

B. LSHTM

C. Imperial

6 Ongoing professional mentoring

7 Final thoughts

8 Appendices

A. Front end evaluation questionnaire for key contacts

B. Front end evaluation questionnaire for workshop participants 35

C. Design Workshop day planner

D. Summative evaluation questionnaire

E. Sample pages from design presentation

F. Brief for poster competition at Cheltenham Science Festival

G. Survey responses

1. Overview The aim of the series of three, whole-day workshops was to provide design training for PhD or post-doctoral scientists, introducing them to basic design principles and providing them with an opportunity to put this knowledge into practice both at the workshop and in subsequent activities. Whilst a requirement of participation in the workshop was that they should be taking part in an upcoming public engagement activity where the knowledge and skills learnt could be used, Design Science also liaised with Cheltenham Science Festival to create an opportunity for further professional mentoring and application of lessons learnt inÂ the workshops (see section 5). The workshops were held on the following dates, with links to pre-workshop booklets that were sent to participants: Cheltenham Science Festival 21 March 2014 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 27 March 2014 Imperial College London (Bioinformatics Course) 9 April 2014

Workshop Trainers Anne Odling-Smee (Lead Trainer) Patrick Roberts Stefanie Schwarz Project Manager Lizzie Crouch

Full information about workshop outputs and the evaluation report can be found at: www.design-science.org.uk/wellcome-trust-fundeddesign-workshops/

2. Aims and objectives Anne Odling-Smee, Director of Design Science and lead trainer for the workshops, completed a front-end evaluation questionnaire during workshop development in order to aid workshop planning. What attitudes do you think the workshop participants have towards design? Some keen, some skeptical, and almost all unaware of what design actually is, so unable to appreciate its potential for science. What skills/knowledge acquisition do you expect for the participants? An understanding of what design is as an overall subject and an introduction to design basics for science communication. What effect do you hope this will have on the researchers’ communication methods? – Immediate application to their own research material – Long-term changes in how they present, posters, slideshow presentations etc – Encourage and empower them to teach others, both within their institutions and through public engagement – Recognition that collaborative working with designers can be useful – Recognition that science would benefit from design funding pots 6

What is your ideal outcome of the workshops? a) For you? Significantly improved communication and evidence of genuine understanding of the value of design for science that convinces other scientists and researchers within and beyond the insitutions. b) For the participants? Skills and confidence to communicate their own research better with diverse audiences and engage with public in new & better ways

3. Front end evaluation In order to match our objectives for the workshop days with the expectations of the participants, front end evaluation forms were administered to both the relevant contacts at the institutions (Appendix A) and to the participants (Appendix B). Although the workshop days followed the same structure (Appendix C), certain aspects on the workshop, such as assumed previous knowledge and language used, could be tailored to suit the participants.

A. Cheltenham Science Festival Key contact: Luiza Patorski Luiza completed a front-end evaluation questionnaire. She described her motivation for involving Festival contributors in the workshop as follows: ‘The Discover Zone, and more Area 42, have generic box-like stands with presenters ‘‘hiding’’ behind a table, giving a ‘‘them and us’’ feel. I am looking to break down these ‘‘barriers’’ and have less of a corporate feel.’ Luiza believed that the workshop participants would have varying public engagement experience but little design experience, being ‘more used to producing academic posters’ and having attitudes such as ‘It’s always been done like this’, ‘design is fluffy stuff, not what/how we 8

want to present’, ‘good design costs money – don’t have the budget’, and so on. She hoped that they would acquire the knowledge such as ‘why design matters and how it can help people understand the science better’ and ‘how small changes can make a big impact’ whilst developing skills that ‘give them confidence in what works/looks good and how to apply it to their subjects.’ She hoped that the workshop would refresh the way that people approached communication of information in Area 42 at the festival, encouraging them to step away from the traditional table and poster board set up. Workshop participants The questionnaire responses indicated that some of the participants had more design experience than anticipated by Luiza. Whilst some people’s experience was limited to the design of presentation and academic posters, others had more experience in the design of public engagement materials. As such, their knowledge of ‘what design is’ was more advanced than seen from participants of the other workshops (see later); ‘a process going from an idea to execution to satisfy a vision’; ‘there are a whole host of definitions for design, but as an engineer the term design 9

is used in the sense of formulating an effective solution to an issue and being able to fully articulate the solution in a manner appropriate to all required stakeholders.’ The participants hoped that, through participating in the workshop, they would gain skills and knowledge that would help with communication of information to a lay audience: ‘I feel that I could benefit from an increased understanding of the tools and facilities available for design purposes. This combined with an improved awareness of the basic concepts of design theory would allow me to convey my scientific ideas better.’ However, they feared that designers would not understand the importance of the scientific message; ‘[from past experience] I found that the educational content was easily altered by the visualisation, and that often the designers would make many of the visualisation more flashy at a cost to the science’; ‘loss of the scientific message to the attractiveness of the exhibit.’

B. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Key contact: Patrick Wilson Patrick completed the front-end evaluation questionnaire. He anticipated that the workshop participants would have a mixed attitude towards design; ‘probably some unaware, most very keen.’ He had high expectations for the level of skills/knowledge acquisition from the workshops. He hoped that this would have an impact both immediately as well as having long terms effects. Further to this, he hoped that this would ‘raise the standard of design across the School’ and play ‘a significant part of long-term process of research communication and engagement.’ Workshop participants Although there was a number of non-responses to the question ‘What does the term ‘design’ mean to you?’ several responses indicated that some participants had a thorough understanding of what design is. For example; ‘I see ‘design’ as the convenient tool for innovation. It could be used in almost every fields including science. It is not only for visually amusing purposes but also for providing service in a more convenient and innovative way.’

There was a wide range of experience with design from almost no experience using design – ‘not much. I create diagrams for my publications, but these aren’t particularly exciting’ – to specific experience on public-facing research projects; ‘I worked in a quality improvement project for child and adolescent mental health services. As part of that project we developed and designed several tools to engage young people in their therapy and to get as much feedback as possible from them.’ Most participants expected the workshops to provide them with knowledge and skills in communicating scientific information to a lay audience; either for specific projects or for general communication. More specifically, as well as learning basic skills, the participants also hoped to gain insights into specific software that could help with them in designing outputs. As with participants of the Cheltenham Science Festival workshop, the LSHTM participants had concerns about designers understanding the scientific – ‘conflict between the priority of accurate interpretation and representation of scientific results (researchers) – and the priority of visually appealing representation of the message (designers).’ and the cost of design.

C. Imperial College, London Key contacts: Mike Sternberg and Michael Stumpf Course leaders from the Bioinformatics programme at Imperial completed the front-end evaluation questionnaire. They recognised that the PhD candidates participating in the workshops would have varying attitudes to design, with some believing that ‘substance is sufficient. Presenting this information with the relevant design is mainly a question of aesthetic.’ They expected that the workshops would provide ‘practical, applied learning in addition to a grounding in the basics of design principles, allowing them to improve their ability to transfer the relevant messages to a given audience using the relevant design tools available.’ They hoped that as an outcome of the workshop the students would learn about the importance in information transfer, that ‘they need to put this information in the relevant form to convey efficiently the messages’.

Workshop participants As anticipated by their course leaders, the workshop participants had a varying appreciation of what design is. Some focused on the aesthetic aspects of visual design, while still appreciating that the outcome wasn’t purely about the looks; ‘planning for creating or representing something effective and attractive’. Others had a more thorough understanding of design, appreciating its role in conveying content to an intended recipient; ‘[design] can be used to make things function in the best way possible as well as something that people want to use’; ‘designing involves thinking about the goal of the created object and how users will experience it’. Most of the participants had almost no knowledge of design organisations and were limited to using design in previous work to presentations and posters. Whilst those who focused more on the aesthetic aspects of visual design were interested in participating in the workshop to make their work look better ‘people like good-looking things’, many of the participants were interested in the role design could play in communicating messages to a lay audience ‘I want to make my work more accessible to non-specialist audiences.’ and more specifically what it could do for scientific information ‘I think that the way of conveying information to the public 14

and to other scientists is almost as important as the information itself. The application of design principles to display this information in an appealing and functional way can be very useful to achieve this’. Despite this, many of the participants had concerns about whether designers would appreciate the scientific information, or the focus of the message, being communicated. One participant noted, ‘scientific publications and posters often have strict form requirements that difficult to come up with innovative ideas. Besides, it may be difficult for a designer to prioritise what information is key and what is not in a scientific project.’

Summary of information learnt from front-end evaluation • Knowledge of design seemed to be better understood

by those with more experience in public engagement or public-facing research. • Knowledge of design and its potential was highly varied

within each workshop. • Most workshop participants were looking for skills for

immediate use in communicating to a lay audience. • Across all 3 workshops participants had concerns about

whether designers would understand the scientific message that was being communicated. • Key contacts from the 3 workshops mentioned that they

hoped confidence to use new skills would be improved in participants.

4. The workshop days See Appendix C for basic plan of the workshop days

Cheltenham Science Festival Date: Friday 21 March 2014 Location: Design Science Studio, London EC1 No. of participants: 10

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Date: Thursday 27 March 2014 Location: Rose Room, LSHTM, Keppel Street W1 No. of participants: 19

Imperial College London (Bioinformatics Course) Date: Wednesday 9 April 2014 Location: Room 165, Skempton Building, ICL SW7 No. of participants: 15

5. Post workshop evaluation A. Cheltenham Only three participants completed the post-workshop evaluation questionnaire. The participants who did complete the evaluation thought that the knowledge of design principles obtained from completing the workshop had opened their eyes to new possibilities, and had gained key information about how to communicate their scientific messages, with answers such as, ‘the course was beneficial in enhancing my understanding of what good clear design entails and how messages can be portrayed in an array of fashions’ and, ‘I can see it being of more use to get the ideas across quicker without having to over complicate it, making it more accessible to all.’ This is the knowledge that Luiza Patorski and the participants hoped would be gained through participation in the workshop. Sophie Hoult, International Festival Producer for Cheltenham Festivals also saw how this could benefit all their festivals: An understanding of the basic elements of design will assist Cheltenham Festivals in thinking about how information (including signage) is communicated more generally within the festival. I anticipate that a basic understanding of text, 20

typography and layout will help to improve the way that I present documents and presentations, both internal and external, within the workplace. Some workshop improvements were suggested through the feedback; ‘more examples of good posters and marketing campaigns. Some were discussed but none were actually shown or talked through about why they were great campaigns and what we could gain’ (NB a presentation of poster examples was included at the following two workshops having recognised this point before feedback was submitted). And, ‘the practical element of the workshop occupied the majority of the time spent, and I think using collage to represent the design elements of the posters was too time-consuming’. (NB the opposite was reported by some participants from the other workshops, who thought that more time could have been allocated to the practical process). There were still concerns that designers did not understand what the focus of the science was ‘[designers] are all about the presentation and not the content when there may be some technical aspects that need to be conveyed with more words rather than smart design.’ Despite this all three of the participants who responded to the questionnaire expressed an interested in more design training.

B. LSHTM LSHTM chose to administer their own summative evaluation questionnaire rather than using ours. The feedback varied, with some participants reporting that the workshop was ‘very good’ whilst others had more critical feedback, with one participant rating aspects of the workshop as ‘poor’ (see Appendix G). Patrick Wilson and Theresa Mellon (Head of Talent and Educational Development at LSHTM) summarised the feedback to us. Key points were as follows: • The School’s overall aim is to improve the capability of

research degree students and early career researchers to communicate their science effectively to different audiences. This Wellcome Trust funded workshop is part of our strategy to achieve this goal and we want to continue our relationship with Design Science. • We should review our communications with

participants – some felt that they had misunderstood the purpose and content of the workshop. • The first session on the principles of design was

appreciated by everyone. The process of producing miniposters by hand was found by some participants to be a struggle, but that is not necessarily problematic, the learning process is not always comfortable. 22

• A number of issues were raised about the emphasis on

posters. Could the work have been framed as producing content for communicating science whether that be for posters or other media? Some participants felt that the facilitators did not take account of the conventions for science posters and/or did not fully understand the science requirements of the communication. • There were a few issues raised around the facilitation

of the workshop: – Aims and objectives and process not clearly explained at the start – Doing the final presentations in one large group (concentrating on 19 presentations is difficult) – The way that the posters were critiqued: participants not involved in critiquing each other’s; told they were not to be judged on the design elements but feeling that there was quite robust critique of design. A follow up meeting was arranged with Patrick and Theresa to discuss this feedback and to plan how to address constructive criticism in the development of future workshops.

C. Imperial Only four participants completed the post-workshop evaluation questionnaire. Three of the participants explained that they learnt some helpful basic design principles: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;How to simplify my research into more generally understandable and interesting concepts. Namely, how to discern key aspects that will be more engaging to the general public. However one participant did not understand the purpose of the workshop: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My honest opinion about the first session, e.g. do not use too much colour, is that it is not really necessary. It might be more helpful if the artists can show a few framework and ask scientists to create posters based on the (slight modified) frameworks.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; [emphasis added] This misconception was, to some extent, anticipated by the course leaders in the front-end evaluation. However, the knowledge acquired by the participants was in line with what the course leaders required from the workshop. All four participants acknowledged that this would help their visual design both in public engagement and non-public engagement work and did not identify any major changes to be made to the workshop. However, one participant said it would have been useful to have 24

‘more information on displaying research and thorough examples of a research project converted to a poster or article’. As previously expressed in the front-end evaluation, there were still some concerns that designers wouldn’t fully appreciate the science. This problem, and how it could be covercome, was articulated well by one participant: ‘One possible issue is that designers and scientist have different perspectives. For scientists, the most important thing in science communication is being as precise as possible, but designers would like simple concepts. This problem should be easily solved if enough time is given for scientists and designers to communicate.’

6. On-going professional mentoring Through discussions with Luiza Patroski at Cheltenham Festivals we were able to set up a poster competition for participants of all three workshops. After each workshop, a brief was distributed (See Appendix E) inviting participants to present their work at this year’s Cheltenham Science Festival, providing a key opportunity both for in-depth communication design training as well as public engagement for their work. Participants were asked to design an A2 poster that will engage visitors of Cheltenham Science Festival with their work, and information about how to contact the trainers for mentoring was provided. This part of the project is currently ongoing. However, submissions have been too few to justify display at the Festival suggesting that this part of the workshop has been pitched wrongly. This is regrettable since it is the part that participants could potentially have benefitted most from. The brief may have been too broad in needing to work across three different organisations. Or participants may have needed greater incentive – academic, financial or both – to be motivated to submit proposals (over 50% of the participants had not heard of Cheltenham Science Festival). Examples received are illlustrated here: 26

Before mentoring

After mentoring

Design submitted by Bob Bonwick, Cheltenham Science Festival workshop participant

Original submissions from Bioinformatics students at Imperial College. Misinterpretation of brief has resulted in research posters rather than public engagement posters being submitted.

Original submissions from Bioinformatics student at Imperial College. Format and style of poster are both wrong, suggesting participant has not read the brief properly.

7. Final thoughts Overall the workshops were successful. Six out of seven of the participants who completed the post workshop Design Science survey reported that they would like either more design training or more opportunities to collaborate with designers to communicate their work (see Appendix G). Most notably LSHTM, who provided the most critical feedback of the three workshops, is now keen to establish a long-term connection with Design Science and has agreed to funding for further workshops. However, aspects of the workshop structure and facilitation could be improved. Most of these can be attributed to ‘teething problems’ that come with the delivery of any prototype workshop, and could be easily adjusted for the future. Some issues are more deep rooted and cannot be instantly overcome. The workshop days showed that, despite a relatively good understanding about what design is by some participants, there are still misconceptions about the design process and what designers do. Consequently, expectations about what could be delivered in a workshop sometimes did not always match what 31

was delivered on the day. This means that greater communication by Design Science and the partner institution about what the day could deliver is needed, but it also reinforces the need for further workshops to increase knowledge about design. Participants from Cheltenham Science Festival and Imperial engaged particularly well with the brief. LSHTM participants were the hardest to train and showed the most resistance to experimenting with their own work. One key point of misunderstanding lay around the definition of the poster itself. The poster is a familiar format to designers, typically involving simple, eyecatching visuals with minimal amounts of text, so as to ensure swift and effective communication of a message. Scientists have a very different understanding of the term. Most automatically refer to ‘research posters’, which they are asked to produce by their own institutions. Research posters traditionally consist of dense, text heavy diplays of information – the antithesis of what a designer is striving for in producing what they consider to be a poster. This issue would needs careful clarification on a future occasion. Alternatively the workshops could be adapted to provide training for producing the science-style research poster, as there is much scope for improvement here too. 32

The workshops were intended to be a taxing, not a ‘spoon-feeding’ exercise. This was not appreciated by all participants. As LSHTM identified, ‘the learning process is not always comfortable’. On a financial level the project as a whole was significantly under-budgeted. An estimated £2500 per workshop would be more realistic for the project to run effectively in future, to cover: – Trainer’s fees – Project management – Preparatory work – Design materials – Meetings with organisations – Photography – Evaluation Additional funds would be required for the online mentoring of approx. £100 per submission.

8. Appendices A. Front end evaluation questionnaire for key contacts (distributed via SurveyMonkey) 1. Who is your proposed target audience? 2. What attitudes do you think the workshop participants have towards design? 3. What skills/knowledge acquisition do you expect for the participants? 4. What effect do you hope this will have on the researchersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; communication methods? 5. What is the ideal outcome of the workshops for you? 6. What is your ideal outcome of the workshops for the participants?

B. Front end evaluation questionnaire for workshop participants (distributed via SurveyMonkey) 1. What is your name? 2. What does the term ‘design’ mean to you? 3. What previous experience have you had using design in your scientific and public engagement work? 4. Why are you interested in learning more about design? 5. What specific knowledge/skills do you hope to learn by participating in this workshop? 6. What potential problems or barriers to you foresee through working with designers? 7. What design organizations are you aware of?

C. Design Workshop day planner

D. Summative evaluation questionnaire (distributed via SurveyMonkey)

1. Name and job title/research position 2. Email 3. What skills/knowledge do you think you learned today? 4. What role do you think these skills/knowledge will play in your public engagement work? 5. What role do you think these skills/knowledge will play in your non-public engagement work? 6. What do you wish would have been included in the workshop? 7. Going forward from today, would you prefer: – more design training – opportunities to collaborate with designers to communicate your work – neither of the above 8. How would you define the term ‘design’? 9. What potential problems or barriers do you forsee through working with designers?

E. Sample pages from design presentation (full version online)

F. Brief for poster competition (e-flyer)

G. Pre workshop survey responses (responses from particpants collated by question and institution)

Colour key Cheltenham Science Festival LSHTM Imperial College London 1. What does the term ‘design’ mean to you? AT: A process going from an idea to execution to satisfy a vision. SE: A way of communicating an idea in a clear and aesthetic way. SU: The creation of something that fullfills it’s purpose to the full potential through careful and thoughtful planning LP: Design is the way something looks and good design can make something easier to use or understand. PF: A creative process that results in something that is both engaging and functional CR: There are a whole host of definitions for design, but as an engineer the term design is used in the sense of formulating an effective solution to an issue and being able to fully articulate the solution in a manner appropriate to all required stakeholders LS: Artistic interpretation of an idea. Using creativity to illustrate your concept BB: A graphic representation of an idea Anon: Design is what defines the look and feel of something: the impression that is created and the message that is conveyed. It is a flexible and responsive process. 40

CG: No response RC: Design to me is more about the way of thinking and presenting information so that it can be understood quickly and remembered. It includes all aspects of presentation as well as useability. NAJ: I don’t know that much about design, even though I really enjoy these activities. I normally get very good feedback about about the documents/designs I create and my last line manager told me I should consider a career in graphic design. Therefore I think I would really enjoy and make the most of this workshop. AD: The creation of a plan to designate how things fit or work together. DD: Design means creating an aesthetic, emotionally compelling, and easily & accurately understood visual representation of a message using text, images, numbers, colours, fonts, layout, etc. SC: I see ‘design’ as the convenient tool for innovation. It could be used in almost every fields including science. It is not only for visually amusing purposes but also for providing service in a more convenient and innovative way. MR: Design is the process of deciding how something will look, how to display some information or object. JC: No response JA: Innovation. Implementation.

Anon: A hard question to answer! Design can completely change the way I react and interact with content – be it text, illustration, data. Even the way furniture, buildings and clothes are designed can change the way I feel. So perhaps, for me, design means the way content and objects are created to make the person interacting with them react/interact/feel a certain way? It is exciting to think about design in terms of data communication as it can be possible to change the way a person interacts with the data through design. It is particularly interesting considering we work in many different countries where visual references and design styles may differ, e.g. the visual clues that make me curious may be very different to the visual clues that may interest my colleague in India. I have heard of the Design Council and visited the Design Museum. I work with design consultancies in my job. SR: No response LL: Coming from a design background, I think good design underpins all effective visual communication. I believe in taking a simple approach to communicating ideas, regardless of the complexity of these. In relation to the communication of scientific ideas, I’m excited by the work of Hans Rosling/Gapminder and information is beautiful as obvious picks. RW: No response ES: Making things that work well and look good.

GR: To me, design is about the interplay of form and function to achieve some desired end. In academia, the desired end is often the communication of knowledge and ideas. As my work also involves promotional and practical goals (generate interest in our website, help community health workers to collect high-quality data, etc.), I think I have a need to explore more "forms" to match our variety of "functions". TD: No response DPM: design (general) = Figuring out an the best possible form of some object or some procedure to accomplish a particular function. HAJ: Design is the selection and lay-out of information. RH: No response XSW: No response UG: No response DW: In this context, design is about creating clear, accurate, well informed and aesthetically pleasing images or diagrams that convey a large amount and/or complex information in a way that grabs people attention. Some of them may tell a story, as a way of conveying the information more vividly. Anon 1: Create something that can inspire people Anon 2: Planning for creating or representing something effective and attractive 41

TR: Design is the practise of making something understandable, usable and beautiful. As a medic may skilfully employ the fruits of biomedical research to the benefit of the patient, or an engineer might harness our physical and chemical knowledge to build a machine, a designer can refine any system or object to be better laid out and hence more usable. Visual design is especially important as it helps to engage the viewer, even if they do not consciously accept or understand how. Knowledge and acceptance of the importance of visual design is one aspect that is sorely missing in science. A bridge needs to be built between these two worlds, and contributing to that is an objective of mine. Anon 3: The act of conceiving the form or layout of something, following aestethic and functional criteria. HG: I think of design as what happens at the interface between innovation and creativity. It can be used to make things function in the best way possible as well as something that people want to use. I think we can use design to make the world a better place whether thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something tangible that we can see, or at the nanoscale, where I work at. Anon 4: The presentation of information in a way which is easy/quick to read and is aesthetically appealing. QG: For me, design is the conception of an object (not necessarily material). Designing involves thinking about the goal 42

of the created object and how users will experience it. WO: Design to me means the aesthetic, layout and medium through which people interact with objects/things. Anon 5: Arrangement of visual material to best communicate information. RB: Visually attractive and elegant.

2. What previous experience have you had using design in your scientific and public engagement work? AT: As part of my Masters I designed a number of different communication resources covering a range of topics ( global warming, GM foods, CP violation, blackholes, solar energy), all covering different audiences, and formats. In addition to this, I wrote and illustrated a book on the topic of lumbar punctures and bone marrow aspirations for children undergoing these procedures as part of their treatment for leukaemia. I also briefly worked for an educational charity creating animations on the GCSE syllabus. Post Masters I designed The Physiological Societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stand for The Big Bang Fair, and am currently putting together a number of public lectures. SE:I am in the first year of my PhD so this is something I am just beginning to do. SU: Presentations and posters LP: I would describe myself as having very little to non-existant design experience.

PF: In my current role I design public engagement resources like hand-outs and flash cards but these are very basic. I designed scientific posters when I was a PhD student. In jobs where I coordinated large public events and initiatives I worked with designers on marketing materials, logos and activity resources. I have very very basic skills in Photoshop and Illustrator. I am more comfortable using Office packages for design but realise these lead to rather amateur results! CR: During my degree we had a 3rd year group design project where we had to produce a poster and presentation that would be eye-catching and enable the markers to get a good understanding of our project with minimal exposure.In my job I have also had to produce designs for engine components and create presentations to brief stakeholders about our work stream. LS: I have created posters and powerpoint presentations to convey my scientific research to both specialised and general audiences. I have also been involved with the creation of worksheets for childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outreach education projects BB: I use microscopes extensively and find using photomicrographs a real boon in communicating what it is I have to communicate and I can do so across the board with regards to different ages and levels of education. Anon: None

CG: Maps are often used in engaging people. I have worked on projects engaging young people in science, and have worked with artists on both maps for their work and why maps are important in public health. RC: Outside of the PhD, I have been involved in design stage for reports and testing how data can be put online. more importantly with the PhD outputs, I am design ing an excel-based tool, online summary site and iPad app which all required design thinking for the data inputs and outputs. NAJ:I worked in a quality improvement project for child and adolescent mental health services. As part of that project we developed and designed several tools to engage young people in their therapy and to get as much feedback as possible from them. AD: Not much. I create diagrams for my publications, but these arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t particularly exciting. DD: I have designed training materials for research study participants, communication materials for stakeholders, and graphs/charts for publications & posters, but I do not have direct experience with data visualisation and graphics. SC: I have been involved with making a motion graphic clip for my educational clinical trial video. Also I took several infographic courses to make a publicly disseminable poster for clinical trial results.

MR: While working with the WHO, I was part of my role to design all communications related to our work. JC: Mainly sourcing web imagery to support scientific text. I was also involved in the Wellcome Trust’s 75th anniversary science and art exhibition, which my former employer (London Pain Consortium) was asked to provide brain imaging shots for to go on display. Anon: I frequently use design in my work: helping to make colleague’s presentations clearer, designing the project’s quarterly newsletter and website, designing graphs and basic infographics for blogs and reports, using Adobe Photoshop and Indesign to create brochures, policy briefs and reports. I have also used design when putting together the posters for the School’s Towards Happier Birth Days exhibition. The audiences, and therefore design, for these products vary - from the Ethiopian government’s minister of health to maternal health advocacy groups to LSHTM students and interested members of the public. Outside of work I run a science greetings card company where I use design to produce greetings cards that aim to inspire and intrigue the recipients. SR: Posters. LL: I come from a visual communications background (though have not worked directly in the area for over a decade!). Prior to this role I worked in health promotion and developed a national behaviour 44

change communication campaign utilising photography and film. I led the development of all original concepts, shot, edited and compiled all the photography and directed the short films. More recently I commissioned a brand and identity agency to create a logo/identity for a mobile app for children with vision impairments, and coordinated an exhibition showcasing the work of the CGMH here at the school. I have yet to approach the process of communicating research. RW: Experience using indesign to produce policy/research briefs, flyers, posters. ES: Pretty much limited to drawing nice graphs and flowcharts for papers and presentations. GR: I’m a health services researcher with experience using mixedmethods (qualitative and quantitative methodologies) to answer questions relevant for service delivery in community health programs. However, my previous training was in anthropology and visual and environmental studies. Although these may seem like rather disparate disciplines, I find they often come together in considerations of design during research dissemination and communication, as well as through the development of more practical research outputs (training manuals, monitoring and evaluation forms, questionnaires, etc.) Recently, my interest in how program stakeholders from different cultures, with varying literacy levels and abilities, access and process information helped to guide me

in the production of a range of monitoring and evaluation forms, standard operating procedures, and training materials for a community mental health program in central Nigeria. I also developed scientific posters and research summaries that relied heavily on visual representations of "data flows" and monitoring and evaluation procedures to communicate findings from our research with the program. TD: None, other than doing posters and powerpoint presentations. These have been designed around content rather than aesthetics. DPM: Design of posters for presentations. I do lots of graphs for my papers, posters and lecture notes and many animated slides presentations. HAJ: Very little. RH: No response XSW: No response UG: No response DW: Creating posters, publications, giving presentations and managing websites, that include figures and tables (produced in word, powerpoint or excel). Anon 1: Preparing posters, creating webpage Anon 2: Creating posters Creating powerpoint slides TR: In terms of design in a scientific capacity I have had relatively little experience, other than designing my thesis and

accompanying presentations. Outside of science I have had experience building websites and doing general design work for clients. However, for a long time it was secondary to my other interests and hence I did not think of it in a professional context. However, I am now in the process of establishing a design consultancy. Anon 3: Design of scientific posters to be presented in symposia. Recently, I am also taking part in the design of websites displaying scientific results. HG: IVery little! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure if this counts, but I was organising some synthetic biology workshops in schools around London a few years ago. One of the activities was for students to design a synthetic biology product and create an advert for it! Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more information at http://2010.igem.org/ Team:Imperial_College_London/School_ Workshops and a video here: http://2010. igem.org/Team:Imperial_College_London/ Media/Videos Anon 4: Powerpoint presentation and poster design. QG: I have developped a program to count bacterial colonies on agar plates (http:// opencfu.sourceforge.net/). WO: I have used design to build figures for project work as well as webpages. Anon 5: Very little â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one poster presentation. RB: Basic PowerPoint designs

3. Why are you interested in learning more about design? AT: Design is a major aspect of my job. SE: As I am greatly interested in public engagement and would like to learn effective ways to communicate my research with the wider public. SU: We are creating an exhibit to demonstrate our work at the Cheltenham festival. Ideally we would like to make it as appealing as possible to get people interested whilst still communicating the science accurately but in a way that is understandable to non-scientists. LP: To find new, engaging and interesting ways to convey information in an easy-tounderstand way. PF: I would like to make my public engagement activities more appealing to non-scientist audiences of all ages, both in terms of how visual they are and how well they communicate a message about a biological concept. CR: I feel that even though I have had some experience of creating posters they have not always been able to reflect what I truly wanted them to. I hope from partcipation in the workshops I will be able to draw upon experience of others to improve my future designs and enable me to capture the key points in a more succint and eye-catching manner. LS: I feel that I could benefit from an increased understanding of the tools and 46

facilities available for design purposes. This combined with an improved awareness of the basic concepts of design theory would allow me to convey my scientific ideas better BB: I have long wanted to improve the media I use in Science communication and would find the workshop invaluable in doing so. Anon: To understand how to create an effective exhibit in order to provide the best possible advice to Qatari partner organisations who wish to contribute content to QSF. CG: Maps are very visual, getting them right and where they fit in websites and text is vital. Getting the whole feel of a website / blog to make the best of the visual aspect of maps is key. RC: I think design is essential in getting research used by policy makers and this is important for getting my PhD results out into various digital formats. NAJ: At the moment I am working on the CHILDSPLA project which aims to develop an interactive app for iPad, which uses animated characters as a new method to collect childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s views about their health. In general I am interested in using design and art with children, to engage them, to help them communicate, to facilitate their involvement in decisions etc. AD: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to find out how to communicate my research visually. People are drawn to diagrams and pictures in papers, so

it’s important that these be clear and interesting. My work involves modelling disease progression and spread, so I need to use pictures to show this. I’m also interested in how to communicate better visually on web pages etc. DD: I am fascinated by the ability of well designed images and visualisations to communicate information to the public and am keen to learn more. My PhD research involved conducting multiple analyses of a complex health intervention and I think good design and visualisations will be useful in communicating the results of the complex intervention & associated complex outcomes from different analyses. SC: As the world is getting busier and people prefer spend less time understanding the result of science work and implication in their daily life. Thus as a scientist, I should respect the change of public’s behaviour in absorbing knowledge and try to accommodate their needs. MR: In my current role, I will be developing tools and information features of the Mental Health Innovation Network, specifically targeting policy makers with evidence based research. One of our roles is to make the information attractive and easily accessible and I would like to learn more about how to design data visualisation and presentations better. JC: No response JA: We are at output stage for some projects that have been undertaken in year 1 of our

grant. These are diverse in terms of their methodological approach, content and structure and we are trying to find a way to collate these outputs in a meaningful, visual and ‘catch-all’ way (with a vested interest in showing it off to our Advisory Board and funder). Anon: I see design as one of my strengths and would like to specialise more in this area. I learn best through visual communication and as our world increasingly switches to online means of communication (videos, pictures, interactive sites), I would like to strengthen my skills in producing useful data visualisations. As our project progresses we will be generating a huge amount of data which would be wonderful to communicate effectively to our wide-ranging audiences. While we do not as yet know what our final key messages will be, the findings of our project have the potential to change the way the Gates foundation’s maternal and newborn health funding strategy, thereby informing policy and practice. Our colleagues at the foundation are busy and need information communicated to them quickly and easily. They often call on us to help them with their annual CoChair meeting where they present their progress to Bill and Melinda Gates. Data visualisations would be an excellent way to do this. SR: As a member of the SRC, communications are my main role and I believe this workshop would enable 47

me to acquire competencies in order to better transmit information to students. Furthermore, I am also involved in research studies and made several posters in the past and intend to continue over the next years. LL: MHIN is being developed as a mechanism to support researchers in global mental health to access the resources they need to accelerate their research. As well as this, it aims to disseminate research to new audiences (in particular policy and practice communities) and provide a space for these communities to interact and collaborate more easily. This will require a sophisticated mix of web-based resources and face-toface opportunities, and will have to be marketed effectively to all stakeholders. I now manage the partnership with the web agency developing the MHIN site and lead on the design aspects of this. We have a complex challenge to develop a functional, interactive yet attractive site serving multiple audiences. We are also responsible for developing resources for the site and in time I hope to contribute to the development of specific communication tools which will be accessible through the site, including infographics, educational and training prezi presentations,and a training toolkit to visually map and track programme implementation and evaluation. Our team will also develop a series of webinars for the site, some of which weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to record or narrate here at the school. 48

RW: I would like to use design to communicate research findings - eg through info-graphics, photo stories, short videos. ES: I can recognise and appreciate good design but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always see how to acheive that myself. Many of my results lend themselves to graphics and I would love to be able to develop more sophisticated and eye catching examples. GR: I come from a family of artists and designers, and often find myself applying basic design principles (learned partly through osmosis and partly through my undergraduate training in visual and environmental studies) to my research and other outputs. Considerations of line and balance play into how I generate questionnaires, for example, or household registers for community health workers. I believe that good design can improve performance by making tools clear, accessible, and fun to use, and by imbuing the work of health service providers with a sense of professionalism and importance. Further, as I progress in my own academic career, I am becoming more and more involved in research dissemination. Questions of how to best communicate qualitative data, for example, may find elegant solutions in the world of design. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like a firmer background in design science specifically and the opportunity to engage with others at the school who are looking for design-based solutions to issues of communicating complex ideas to scientific, policy, and lay communities.

TD: I am interested in science communication and design, and from my experience of seeing lots of posters altogether, I can see the value in well presented work. I would like to make my research more accessible and clear. DPM: Communicating statistical concepts is much easier with good graphical aids, specially for non-statisticians. HAJ: As my PhD progresses I will be attending conferences and other events with posters explaining my work - the more eye-catching and informative they are the more they will do to raise my profile. RH: No response XSW: No response UG: Design can facilitate understanding and communicating Science in teaching and research both in developed and developing countries. DW: This would be an opportunity to update my skills and give another string to my bow, in helping to translate scientific knowledge to a broad audience. Anon 1: People like good-looking things Anon 2: It makes a work more attractive and it helps deliver messages to readers easier

routinely but necessarily crammed into a small space? Anon 3: I think that the way of conveying information to the public and to other scientists is almost as important as the information itself. The application of design principles to display this information in an appealing and functional way can be very useful to achieve this. HG: I I want to make my work more accessible to non-specialist audiences. I also think design is fundamental to my research. Anon 4: As a scientist, it is very important to know how to present your work in a way which is clear and enticing QG: I plan to do more web and software design in the future. WO: Clearly science communication is very important and without good design you will not be able to communicate your knowledge effectively or a large group of people. Anon 5: Useful for communicating scientific ideas. RB: To develop unique scientific posters that can win awards.

TR: Hopefully I can understand more about the constraints of designing for science. What is good scientific typography? How do we reconcile the problem of the scientific poster, where too much information is 49

4. What specific knowledge/skills do you hope to learn by participating in this workshop? AT: Best practice SE: Gaining knowledge on collaborating with designers. SU: To learn how to design our exhibit so that it is clear and precise, yet attractive and to make it ergomonic so that people can move through and look at the pieces without creating too many queues. LP: How to lay things out that is appealing to look at and easy to take in quickly. How potentially small changes could have a big impact. How to get large and complex infornation into a small space, but still easy to digest. PF: The process of design, how to inject creativity and simplicity into design of public engagement resources/ activities. CR: I hope to be able to learn more about the specific software tools that will help me to increase the quality of my posters and my understanding of what is most appealing to the public eye. BB: I hope to learn how to communicate with design professionals, how to communicate my ideas better through the uses of more advanced design techniques. I also hope to learn what facilities are available for myself to improve the design aspect of any future projects.

Better/different ways of demonstrating my work in all itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guises as well as a better understanding of how I can use all avail media resources not just the easy to use, standard tools available to me currently. Anon: To gain a greater understanding of different models of interaction and public engagement that can be incorporated into the design of the exhibit; to understand how these can be adapted to different scenarios; to share ideas for innovative designs and concepts; to learn how to create a clear brief for both exhibitors and designers. CG: A few tips around design, what to watch out for, maybe some good software to use. RC: More effective ways of communicating model inputs and outputs for a range of devices and also audiences. NAJ: I have never had any formal training in design but during the last years I have worked with different professionals (web designers, app designers, animators, graphic designers) and started learning about it. I have also developed some materials (child friendly booklets or forms) using only my intuition and very basic softwareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (power point, paint etc) so I would like to acquire better understanding and experience in design. AD: New design ideas, increased understanding of design and its interplay with the sciences. DD: I hope to learn about the key components and considerations for making

well designed graphics and visualizations, an insight into different softwares that can be used – if not powerpoint, photoshop, etc, and some basic skills in how to start to develop good quality design work for dissemination in multiple formats. SC: Infographics, using maps and charts etc. MR: How to apply design aspects to research pieces to make them more accessible and interesting. JC: No response JA: How to take multiple data types and transform these into accessible, interpretable and clear visual forms. I would also like to learn more about the tools and support available to do this. Anon: I would like to learn more about the process I should go through with my academic colleagues to produce a data visualisation: what questions to ask them, which formats to use, what software to use etc. I would also like to inspire my colleagues – some of whom are already very interested –in creating data visualisations and thinking about how they communicate their research in a new way. I enjoy drawing by hand and think that the creative nature of science can be communicated through more hand-drawn data visualisations. I would like to learn how to do this in a clear way to present online. SR: How to translate and present scientific information in a clear way, both for scientists and the general public.

LL: I haven’t previously developed any of the tools I describe above and would like the opportunity to learn the concepts behind these as with my design background I feel I could add value to the resources we develop by having a grounding in the appropriate approaches to communicating research in these ways. RW: Design programmes for data visualisation, more about audio-visual productions. ES: 1)Technical knowledge, since I’m not familiar with the software, or the application of existing software. 2) A different perspective- Most of my results start from the data, and they way the results lend themselves to display but perhaps that’s the wrong way round. GR: Specifically, I’d like to learn about (1) innovative techniques for presenting mixedmethods data; (2) design strategies for improving the clarity and user-friendliness of data collection tools; (3) preferred software for generating charts v. tables v. other design elements; (4) application of design principles to web-based communications. TD: Basic concepts of how to improve design in how you present work. DPM: Good graphical design. HAJ: Software tools for poster design and AV presentations. Scientific design guidelines. RH: No response 51

XSW: No response UG: No response DW: Data visualisation and graphic techniques that will help to explain complex research data. Anon 1: Anything Anon 2: How to create poster effectively How to give a successful presentation – Everything above, and also the creation of specific scientific documents such as papers and all the consoderations therein. Anything about data visualisation. Anon 3: Poster design and web design. HG: I’d like to learn some new strategies for how I can present my work more simply. I’m aware that I often focus on minor details and ignore the first impression that someone unfamiliar with my research is likely to get. This can mean they ‘disengage’ straight away, thus making it really hard to communicate my work. Anon 4: Software packages that make the process simpler. Key features of a successful poster/presentation QG: I would like to learn general principles of design and good practices. WO: Good website and poster design Anon 5: Eye-catching and informative ways to design poster/displays. RB: I hope to learn best possible poster designs that can fetch prizes. 52

5. What potential problems or barriers to you foresee through working with designers? AT: Whilst working for the educational charity, I was one of two scientists in a group of 14 graphic designers. I found that the educational content was easily altered by the visualisation, and that often the designers would make many of the visualisation more flashy at a cost to the science. SE: I could foresee that it could be difficult if you have an idea which you find hard to articulate to a designer and to get how you would personally like it. SU: Loss of the scientific message to the attractiveness of the exhibit. LP: That the designers might not always understand the concepts that are trying to be put across. In the case of my "topic" I dont think this will be an issue but may be for others. PF: I don’t have very much budget – not sure if this will limit what will be feasible. CR: My only concern is that I will not be able to get the designer to understand what I truly want and that we may both have very different visions within which we cannot reach a compromise. LS: It could be quite difficult. Communicating the fundamental and important aspects of science at a general level is always difficult and I feel that this

could hinder the productivity of both myself and the designers.

priority of visually appealing representation of the message (designers).

BB: Not being able to explain my concepts or my reasoning adequately to the designers and therefore not get the results I’d hoped for.

SC: As many of designers were not science major and independent workers, it was difficult to make them unstood my project and implications. For example, I had a hard time making this infographic video with designers as some of the symbols they used had another important meaning in clinicians (injections mean something serious..like intervention in clinical trials so it is not good symbolistic expressions for just sinifying combining ideas by injecting thoughts).

Anon: Difficulty in communicating a specific idea or vision; risk that design principles will be prioritised over content CG: Design must match requirements. Sometimes the most important thing in public health setting is not the flash, computer driven design, but simple understandable easily copies low tech work that gets the point across. RC: Cost is a major factor, but more importantly on how complex messages can be oversimplified in the design process. NAJ: Sometimes is difficult to find common ground between the designer, the scientist, and the patients as their primary interests and/or tastes are very different. It is important that everyone understands where the others are coming from so everyone can be flexible and arrive to an agreement that satisfies everyone. AD: Communicating things clearly as different disciplines have different ways of describing things and working with other people. DD: Conflict between the priority of accurate interpretation and representation of scientific results (researchers) and the

MR: Difference of opinions, last of knowledge on my part of how design works, lack of knowledge on their part about our target audience(s). JC: No response JA: Perhaps that the science is misinterpreted or that their work may satisfy ‘an audience’ but not necessarily the academic producers of the data... Anon: I sometimes have a very strong visual image in my head which I can’t get through to the designers we contract. There have also been times when designers do not read the content/understand the data they are putting into a report they are designing so mistakes can start to creep in! There is also the problem that changes cannot be made instantly – they have to be noted on a pdf, then sent to the designer, then changed, then put in a pdf and sent back. I hope in the future to improve my Adobe InDesign 53

and Illustrator skills so that I can work with designers in a more productive way, e.g. they produce templates which I can then edit quickly. LL: I’ve worked a fair amount with designers. It’s always great when you find a collaboration where both parties are passionate,knowledgeable and potentially even experienced in both design and science/health research and have some understanding of the needs of researchers and the needs of the audiences you are communicating with. As these are often very different stakeholders, and the day to day tools used by researchers and designers are very different, being clear on shared objectives can be challenging. RW: No response ES: None, is that unrealistic optimism? TD: No response GR: Although I’m very interested in design and quite confident working with designers, I’ve noticed in our own work a bit of a tension between the desire for clarity and simplicity of design and the need to exhibit rigor and thoroughness in research. A designer may take p-values and confidence intervals as "clutter" when presenting effect sizes, for example, or want to limit the number of outcomes displayed in a table, while an epidemiologist would consider this bad science. These questions have come to the forefront with our work on the Mental Health Innovation Network, where we are trying to develop a resource that is trusted 54

by and accessible to both scientific and lay communities. DPM: The difficulty to communicate to the designers what the object or the procedure is meant to be for... HAJ: No response RH: No response XSW: No response UG: No response DW: Understanding what is possible within the constraints of a design programme. Conveying my ideas clearly enough for them to make sense to a designer. Anon 1: They do not understand what we want, hard to communicate Anon 2: No response TR: None. Anon 3: Scientific publications and posters often have strict form requirements that difficult to come up with innovative ideas. Besides, it may be difficult for a designer to prioritise what information is key and what is not in a scientific project HG: Different perspectives and different priorities, which can sometimes make it feel like you’re working against each other. Anon 4: The ability to include all seemingly essential information whilst having to fit everything in one page/slide AND making it look good!

QG: For scientists, it is difficult to find the good compromise between hiding complexity and allowing users to tune/ customise tools. I foresee that scientists will want to provide as many options as possibles to the users while designers will try to make it as intuitive and simple as possible. It could be challenging to find a middle ground.

Anon: D237 (art, graphic, photography, illustration, web); Modla (3D printing, digital design)

WO: Lack of understanding of what we are trying to commuicate

DD: I am aware of the the Guardian Digital Agency, and a few private companies as well as organisations that use design in their work such as Gapminder.

Anon 5: They might not understand the importance of the various bits of science. RB: I am not sure about this.

CG: No response RC: No response NAJ: No response AD: No response

SC: (No response provided by participant). MR: Only design org I can think of right now is PIVOT Dublin.

6. What design organisations are you aware of? AT: None SE: None SU: None LP: None (I’m not including Design Science in this!) PF: I previously worked with Savage and Gray, To the Point and View Creative when working on projects for National Science & Engineering Week.

JC: No response JA: I know of the Design Council (we’ve briefly worked with them) and Wellcome Trust, who are advocates for science and art working together. I’ve also encountered some online tools which support data visualisation (Tableau springs to mind). Anon: I have heard of the Design Council and visited the Design Museum. I work with design consultancies in my job. SR: No response

LS: None

LL: In relation to the communication of scientific ideas, I’m excited by the work of Hans Rosling/Gapminder and information is beautiful as obvious picks.

BB: Graphic Science (Bristol)

RW: No response

CR: I am currently not aware of any design organisations

ES: No response GR: No response TD: No response DPM: No response HAJ: No response RH: No response XSW: No response UG: No response Anon 1: RCA? Anon 2: Good question. I tend to follow individual designers and blogs and have some knowledge of recent design trends but I know little about institutions. W3 and the other web consortiums are the institutions I am most aware of. TR: None Anon 3: Design Science and the Design Council HG: None QG: None WO: None Anon 5: None RB: None

7. Can you provide a short synopsis of the research/project that you will be exhibiting at Cheltenham Science Festival? AT: The Society is currently holding itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first themed year, focusing on the topic of Obesity. We plan to exhibit activities looking at energy homoeostasis, hormonal control of appetite and BMI. SE: The key message is that microorganisms live in the body and evolve over time, allowing them to respond to antibiotics by developing resistance. At the University of Oxford we are investigating the evolution of micro-organisms within and between patients and developing rapid new tests that detect antibiotic resistance. SU: Salmon is a carnivorous predatory fish and adult salmon obtain all the nutrients they require by consuming forage fish. The use of forage fish to feed farmed salmon is currently at the maximum sustainable yield. With fish stocks in decline and the demand for high quality sources of fish oil and protein on the rise, new sources of fish meal need to be identified. Poor quality fish meal needs supplementation with high quality fish oils and weight for weight results in more fish entering the system as food than is produced. Currently 50 % of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production of fish oil is fed to farmed salmon. Fish accumulate the EPA and DHA oils from eating algae or eating other fish which have eaten the algae. Therefore our approach was to identify the genes involved in fatty acid metabolism in algae and

use them to produce these oils in plants. The oilseed Camelina is naturally high in omega3 fatty acids including the precursors to EPA and DHA, so this seemed an obvious choice to test the algal genes. We can currently produce EPA levels of ~ 25% of the total fatty acid content of the seed with the addition of 5 genes and 10 % EPA/10 % DHA with the addition of 7 algal genes. In 2013 we started and experiment to determine if the Camelina-derived oils can successfully replace/partially replace fish oil in farmed salmon. This experiment is ongoing. LP: I am not exhbiting at the festival, but will be designing the map for the Discover Zone used by members of the public to find out what stands are in the space. PF: I am not completely sure what element of biology I would like to focus on for my Discover Zone stand yet but broadly it will be hands-on activities that demonstrate biological concepts in a simple and visually impactful way. I am quite keen to explore links between fundamental biology of living things and everyday lives (health, food, fuel etc.). E.g.how biological processes like pollination and fermentation are important for providing us with food. CR: I will be helping to exhibit the Defence Engineering and Science Group. This is an engineering and science, graduate and apprentice scheme for young scientists and engineers wishing to be involved with the procurement, delivery and support of military equipment.

LS: Fish oils are rich in omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), which can help reduce our risk of heartattacks. Unfortunately, global fish stocks are not sufficient for everyone on the planet. We are making a new land-based source of fish oils in GM plants. BB: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be teaching 11-17 year olds about how we, as cellular pathologists see the world of normal and abnormal as well as run through basic physiological experiments to show what we define as normal. Anon: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m attending with a view to understanding best practice, for implementation at Qatar Science Festival - both with local partners and with the internal design and build teams. CG: Work with Central St Martins and Royal College of Art on use of maps. Maps for general school outputs, maps and presentation and web content for GIS at LSHTM. Also work on output for exhibition at Wellcome trust on mapping sexual slang. RC: Online publication of the PhD results in website and iPad app formats. Current project: PhD project nearing completion on subnational and team-based planning for the maternal and newborn workforce, with case studies in England, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. The projections can be presented by scenarios, geographical areas, and specific professions and clinical service areas. NAJ: I was recently invited to join the internal network of public engagement 57

champions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine so I reckon I will be involved in several activities. In 2013 I presented a proposal to be part of the Bloomsbury festival, which was selected by the public engagement committee. As a result, the CHILDSPLA project was the main theme in the LSHTM tent for the festival. Current project: Children’s health state preferences learnt from animation. Hello CHILDSPLA is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Royal College of Art. We are developing an app for iPad which uses an animated character to collect information from children aged between 4 and 14 about their health. Next year we shall be testing how well this app compares to other ways of collecting the information with over 500 children both in schools and in hospitals. AD: Current project: I’m looking at the costs and outcomes for cervical cancer screening options in Africa. DD: Unsure at the moment, but several conferences on the horizon. My PhD research explores the intersection and divergence of different statistical and sociological approaches for evaluating complex health interventions. The work will explore how different conceptualisations of complexity, evaluation and evidence contribute different interpretations to the same complex intervention evaluation. The complex intervention under examination is PRIME, a multidimensional training 58

programme for public health workers in eastern Uganda evaluated through a large cluster randomised trial designed to assess the impact of the intervention on population-level health indicators, and a secondary study to document and evaluate the mechanisms of effect of PRIME’s complex intervention through a range of qualitative and quantitative data. The results of the work will show how different conceptualisations of the complexity of the intervention and evaluation approach may lead to different interpretations of the intervention’s effect – how the same intervention story can be retold from different analytical standpoints. SC: Current project: My plan was to make an infographic statistics book for non-medical students. MR: I developed newsbriefs on health events, created trifold leaftlets on health promotion and immunization, and presented a policy to stateholders. Currently working on products aimed at policy makers to get them involved and interacting with research on Global Mental Health. JC: No response JA: Big Local project (as referenced above), tweeting, website development, event organising and setting up and running an evaluation course designed for non public health practitioners to understand evidence use in decision making at a local government level. Current projects: Two projects: 1) As mentioned above,

we are trying to compile an ‘overview’ of our findings from multiple research projects in year 1 of our existence. These research projects range from a systematic review, to a qualitative housing study, to an ethnography and a workshop series engaging with local government policy makers and practitioners. There a many correlations in the findings from these projects but finding a way to capture this is something I think we could achieve through visualisation of the data. 2) Big Local Evaluation project - SPHR is also carrying out an evaluation of a Lottery/ Local Trust sponsored programme called ‘The Big Local’, which gives 150 UK communities £1m over 10 years to invest how the community chooses. There will be a lot of public engagement attached to this work and we will need to find a way to show communities engaged in this programme what our evaluation is finding. I think data visualisation will help. Anon: As a Communications Officer I am involved in communications activities every day from writing blogs and tweets to helping colleagues write reports to designing policy briefs and making short films. I have recently been asked to be one of the School’s Public Engagement champions. As a champion I will spend at least 2 hours a month working on promoting public engagement within the School. Current project: The IDEAS project aims to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies through generating evidence to inform policy and practice. Working in Ethiopia, North-Eastern Nigeria and the

state of Uttar Pradesh in India, the IDEAS team is using measurement and evaluation to find out what works, why and how in maternal and newborn health programmes. IDEAS is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The main aspects to IDEAS’ work are: 1) Research testing the theory of change for improving maternal and newborn health put forward by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by answering 4 learning questions. (2) Capacity building for measurement, learning and evaluation in Ethiopia, Nigeria and India. (3) Evidence into policy and practice: disseminating findings as robust evidence to improve maternal and newborn survival. SR: As a member of the SRC, communications are my main role and I believe this workshop would enable me to acquire competencies in order to better transmit information to students. Furthermore, I am also involved in research studies and made several posters in the past and intend to continue over the next years. LL: Developing resources for MHIN including infographics, research toolkits and a set of training materials (including audio presentations and visual tools and guides) to support impact evaluation in global mental health research. Current project: Detail on the MHIN initiative is in Q4 above. RW: My role is in communications for the consortium Current project: RESYST (Resilient and responsive health systems) 59

is an international research consortium funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development. We conduct health policy and systems research in Africa and Asia to promote health and health equity and reduce poverty/ ES: Presenting at an international conference Current project: Comparing levels of mortality due to HIV infection, in Africa, among groups of people who have had different levels of treatment and care ranging from those whose infection has not been diagnosed through to people who have had treatment but discontinued it. GR: Beyond the development and population of the Mental Health Innovation Network website (as well as the newsletters, brochures, social media outputs, etc. that we are using to promote it), I will be involved in the presentation of our original research findings and "knowledge synthesis products" to donors, researchers, and other project stakeholders. For example, I will be developing and presenting scientific posters and Powerpoint presentations to share at conferences and stakeholder meetings. Current Project: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m currently working on a team that is designing and populating the Mental Health Innovation Network website (http://www.mhinnovation.net). Our goal is to create a "one-stop shop" for stakeholders ranging from policy-makers and program implementers to researchers, students and service users. Not only are many different audiences targeted; many different products are being developed 60

as well. Webinars, infographics, podcasts, research summaries, case studies, etc. all need to be created individually and fit together holistically on one site, with one brand identity. For this project, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m producing several "knowledge synthesis products"-- essentially research presented in a highly accessible, visual format. This will involve a significant amount of creative thinking about presenting qualitative and quantitative data together to convey complicated ideas as clearly and succinctly as possible. TD: Perhaps a poster or presentation at a scientific conference, if my abstract is accepted. Current Project: I am testing epithelial cells response to infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. I am screening the expression of a panel of inflammatory markers to test how they differ in response to infection with bacteria of differing virulence. DPM: Writing of papers, teaching, conferences... Current project: Secondary analysis of clinical trial data. Graphical methods to explain the statistical results of the experiments. HAJ: Next 6 months: Unsure - may have a poster at the malaria centre retreat. Current Project: My project aims to identify and prioritise potential malaria blood stage vaccine targets using a combination of genomics and invasion inhibition assays. RH: No response XSW: No response

UG: No response DW: The production of 4 knowledge summaries and various journal papers and conference posters/presentations. Current Project: IDEAS (Informed Decisions for Actions) is a multi-method evaluation of complex maternal and newborn health interventions in three areas with high burden of maternal and neonatal mortality: Ethiopia, North-Eastern Nigeria and Uttar Pradesh, India. It looks at not only at what works and the potential for scale up, but also at the quality of the interventions. I also coordinate the production of knowledge summaries for the Partnership of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH)4-page advocacy documents used to raise awareness and inform policy makers of the latest research findings on different topics relating to maternal, newborn and child health.

could then be available as a resource for our group and other researchers. HG: I am engineering a new diagnostic test for tuberculosis using nanomaterials. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m hoping that my test can achieve greater sensitivities because of the small size of the nanoparticles Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m working with. Anon 4: Database of DNA sequences. QG: I am currently working on different projects. My area of research is quantitative biology I try to use mathematical and computationnal tools to address biological questions. WO: No response Anon 5: Currently working towards exams in Bioinformatics. RB: Nothing at the moment.

Anon 1: Anon 2: Protein prediction TR: Short synopsis: designing and implementing a database, annotation pipeline and web front end for an experimental group who want to establish a usable method to access species subtyping and comparative genomics data. Anon 3: We are integrating data from different sources to come up with a database of genetic variants and their impact on protein structure, protein-protein interactions and disease. This database 61

G. Post workshop survey responses (collated by question)

Colour key Cheltenham Science Festival LSHTM collated as scanned pages â&#x20AC;&#x201C; p.66 Imperial College London

1. What skills/knowledge do you think you learned today? Anon: The importance of simplicity when communicating an idea, and the importance of considering the format of the communication method being employed (in this case, large-scale poster) in order to adjust the design elements accordingly. SH: Understanding how best to communicate my work without having to use the vast detail usually expected from the wider scientific community. Making best use of public perception of Sciences in my communication. BB: The course was beneficial in enhancing my understanding of what good clear design entails and how messages can be portrayed in an array of fashions. I do not believe that I had the opportunity to develop any actual skills as such, the course merely gave me a better appreciation of trying to think outside the box. Anon: How to relate difficult scientific concepts to people who are not scientists. Some principles important to design, e.g. of posters. BJD: How to simplify my research into more generally understandable and interesting 62

concepts. Namely, how to discern key aspects that will be more engaging to the general public. SI: Thinking about how to communicate our work in an easy way SF: I found it is hard to communicate science. Scientists try to be a bit more precise than describing a very broad field, but sometimes it may be hard for the public to understand within half an hour, as the scientists probably have spent months, if not years, on his/her research. My honest opinion about the first session, e.g. do not use too much colour, is that it is not really necessary. It might be more helpful if the artists can show a few framework and ask scientists to create posters based on the (slight modified) frameworks.

2. What role do you think these skills/ knowledge will play in your upcoming public engagement project? Anon: The basic design knowledge learned will help to inform the advice that Cheltenham Festivals can offer to potential sponsors and partners who wish to design public engagement stands and exhibits at festivals both in the UK and abroad. SH: I can see it being of more use to get the ideas across quicker without having to over complicate it, making it more accessible toÂ all.

BB: I will be able to think more outside of the box in order to deliver my message in a clear and engaging manner.

3. What role do you think these skills/ knowledge will play generally in your public engagement work? Anon: An understanding of the basic elements of design will assist Cheltenham Festivals in thinking about how information (including signage) is communicated more generally within the festival. SH: Again making my work more accessible to all as well as help others in my field to do the same. BB: See above Anon: At the minute our public engagement work is limited but poster design in the future would change. BJD: I am not sure what role these skills will play in public engagement work. This essentially depends on my future roles and goals. Todays, public engagement in research is mostly motivated by grasping, not entirely accurate and sensationalistic titles or statements mostly done by journalists. Unless my research is involved with public health it is hard to determine the roles.

4. What role do you think these skills/ knowledge will play generally in your nonpublic engagement work? Anon: I anticipate that a basic understanding of text, typography and layout will help to improve the way that I present documents and presentations, both internal and external, within the workplace. SH: While I can’t see a change in current trends within the scientific publishing world, I can see that it will help to bridge the ‘crosstalk’ so many of us find going on and maybe lend to a great amount of resiprocity. BB: Give me a greater appreciation of advertising campaigns the the time effort and rescoping that has to be put in, in order for the advertising campaigns to meet their objectives. Anon: Principles of poster design could be useful at scientific poster events. BJD: I am not sure they will. Since it seems that skills needed for public engagement are not a necessary component of the actual research or even direct fund raising as grants. SI: Thinking outside of the box SF: Scientists from different fields may have similar problems when communicating their work

SI: Art design SF: I will make more effort to communicate science 63

5. What do you wish would have been included in the workshop? Anon: The workshop was a useful introduction to the basic elements of design, with particular focus on poster communication. I feel that more theory and instruction on communicating scientific ideas in different contexts – particularly communicating them through large-scale interactive exhibits – would have been useful in the context of this workshop, which was aimed primarily at researchers who will be exhibiting in the Discover Zone at Cheltenham Science Festival. The practical element of the workshop occupied the majority of the time spent, and I think using collage to represent the design elements of the posters was too time-consuming. Instead, it would have been useful to have included more group discussion and feedback during the design phase, with less emphasis on the final result, in order for participants to fully work through the different issues associated with communicating their ideas. SH: Nothing springs to mind as it was my first adventure in Design. BB: More examples of good posters and marketing campaigns. Some were discussed but none were actually shown or talked through about why they were great campaigns and what we could gain. Anon: More on scientific poster design. BJD: More information on displaying research and thorough examples of a 64

research project converted to a poster or article that is solely interested in public engagement and not raising funding. Examples, of how various means, as social media, were used in such cases. SI: More exercises SF: I wanted to know how to arrange poster contents in vertical and horizontal design.

5. Going forward from today, would you prefer: Anon: More design training SH: More design training BB: More design training Anon: More design training BJD: Opportunities to collaborate with designers to communicate your work SI: Opportunities to collaborate with designers to communicate your work SF: Neither of the above

6. How would you define the term ‘design’? Anon: I I think this was expressed well during the workshop presentation: that design is the glue between an idea and the recipient. Design is the mechanism that enables an idea to be communicated effectively to a target audience.

SH: A better way to communicate with different audiences about how my work as a scientist fits into everyday life. BB: There is no true definition of design as it can mean an array of things, a good definition I have found is: The art or action of conceiving of and producing a plan or drawing of something before it is made Anon: Visual communication of a message. BJD: A method or process to portray information in a novel and interesting approach. To develop purpose oriented ways of displaying motivation, data, and results and why it is important. SI: Planning how to represent the work SF: Make something inspiring.

7. What potential problems or barriers do you forsee through working with designers? Anon: Scientists will instinctively want to resist condensing the complexity of their ideas to the extent that they omit what they consider to be key pieces of information â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this will need to be balanced against the requirement for effective communication. Reaching agreement on the message that needs to be conveyed could present a barrier, particularly if working with designers who do not have specific experience of working in a science communication context.

SH: Losing some of the meaning, with everything there is the potential for miscommunication of ideas, people can sometimes read in too much in to what they see and their opinions can change when discussed with other people. BB: They are all about the presentation and not the content when there may be some technical aspects that need to be conveyed with more words rather than smart design. Anon: Designers, assuming they are nonscientific, will want to make the message simple and accessible. BJD: That research topics will be commercialized and misconstrued in the aim of sensationalism. I feel that the problems and barriers are readily seen in todays â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;popular scienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. SI: Designers usually have little scientific knowledge SF: One possible issue is that designers and scientist have different perspectives. For scientists, the most important thing in science communication is being as precise as possible, but designers would like simple concepts. This problem should be easily solved if enough time is given for scientists and designers to communicate.