🚀 Does the way scientists label complex visualisations affect how well the public understands them?
A study co-authored by Prof. Eric Jensen examined how different types of explanatory labels influence public comprehension of three-dimensional data visualisations, using space plasma data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission as the test case.
Here’s what they found:
👉 Participants who saw narrative explanatory labels (vs. minimal or technical ones) had significantly better understanding of the underlying science.
👉 Labels that included context and explanation supported more accurate mental models of what was happening in the visualisation.
For scientists and science communicators, the practical implication is straightforward: communication design is not incidental to public understanding. It shapes it.
Read the open-access article here:
buff.ly/tdD7Zaz
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