@iamscicomm is a rotation curation (rocur) Twitter account enabling people with interest and expertise in different areas of science and research communications to spend a week sharing ideas and information – and for seven days in March, I was the @iamscicomm curator. I’ve been following the account for quite a while, and seen some really helpful resources, interesting discussions and entertaining content – and felt that I might have something useful to offer too. My curation concept was to explore new ways of helping researchers to develop their communication skills by bringing some of the exercises from our infohackit masterclasses and training sessions onto Twitter.
As with our training events, there was quite a bit of planning and preparation to ensure I had all the necessary resources and materials ready to go – grateful thanks to Phil Lamb, our NERC intern for his help in pulling it all together.
What we did
Here’s a list of the major threads from the week, and what they covered:
My Scicomm Story – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110119148804337664
Design Principles > Colour – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110136174335717382
Design Principles > Images – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110150454787354625
Design Principles > Type – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110168088530571264
Design Principles > Composition – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110181082987724800
Vector Illustration > Basic Shapes / icon animals – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110497298419773440
Vector Illustration > Vector outlines / simple animals – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110534763155259392
Vector Illustration > Low Poly animals – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110558604195758081
Posters > Top 5 Tips – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110845748009156610
Posters > Iterative improvements to a cat poster – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110859316838498306
Posters > Using PowerPoint like a pro – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1110875840978526208
Visual Abstracts > Top 5 styles – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1111229240496832513
Visual Abstracts > Iterative design process – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1111251867554713605
Visual Abstracts > Best practice case study – https://twitter.com/iamscicomm/status/1111292730926338049
What were the outcomes?
Through our infohackit events we already know that amongst researchers there is appetite for improving their visual communications and developing design skills, and I was delighted to receive positive engagement from so many people – I’m always inspired and impressed by what people can do with a little guidance! It was also great to learn more about what others are doing in the field of visual communications and what resources etc people are finding useful.
The week has demonstrated that delivering visual communication training online has plenty of potential, and I’m looking forward to exploring future opportunities, perhaps as a conference mentor, through regular poster feedback via Tweetup or an online visual scicomm club…
And finally
Check out some of these amazing animals. You guys are awesome!
