NASA的艺术总监罗伯特·西蒙（Robert Simmon）说地球天文台，最好的科学交流是分层的。您首先是一些令人震惊和相关的东西，然后邀请观众深入研究，每一层都越来越透露越来越多。例如：这张美国森林的卫星地图，建于2.65亿个细分市场，并旨在确切了解我们的树木可以吸收多少碳。这是我们当天的信息图，但这也是一个关于良好视觉信息设计的微妙选择的故事。
Layer 1：这是树木位于低48个州的地图。数据的分辨率非常高，准确到30米以内，这意味着森林经理和研究人员可以跟踪像停车场或大型建筑物一样小的东西所造成的破坏。这些东西很重要，因为森林是世界上最大的碳水槽之一。管理我们的碳库存将成为与全球变暖作斗争的关键部分。
Layer 2：当您近距离放大时，您会看到迷人的模式。在某些地方，树木几乎看起来像地形图，因为它们追踪了山脉的图案。在其他地方，棋盘格模式揭示了人类清除切割的影响。即使这是一张似乎无视人的地图，仍然可以看到人类的影响。
Layer 3: The map was created based on data from the Woods Hole Research Center’s (WHRC)National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD)。It’s a baseline estimate of “basal area-weighted canopy height, aboveground live dry biomass, and standing carbon stock” (in other words, trees) for the year 2000. It combines data from a variety of sources, most notably from satellites which scanned the ground. This reveals the lasting importance of the space program: It allows us to look more closely at our own planet. Earth Observatory published the map as part of afeature storyon mapping and understanding the locations of the planet’s trees. Earth Observatory’s mission is to “share with the public the images, stories, and discoveries about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA research.”
Layer 4: Though WHRC had发布自己的地图在数据中，Simmon希望制作一个新的数据。他说：“我的角色是使这些图像易于解释非专家。”他希望您能够快速查看图像并获得图像。（“嘿，树木地图！”）但是您看的越多，您就可以学习的越多。考虑到此标准，WHRC地图存在问题。他说：“我真的不喜欢这两件事。”
首先与着色有关。随着密度上升，这两个地图都从米色越来越强烈。但是使用WHRC图，最高密度表示为红色。红色不是我们通常与树相关的颜色。至少可以说，这不是很直观。他说：“科学家一直这样做。”“他们不明白我对此有多腐烂。”
更糟糕的是，从绿色到红色的转换突然突然，并不能准确代表变化程度。“使用地图的目标不是从中获得特定值。地图真正强大的是显示模式和关系。”您想使视觉关系与数值关系匹配。您希望从10到20的变化看起来像从50到60的变化一样大。
The second problem comes in the areas where there just aren’t all that many trees. In the WHRC map, they fill those areas of no data with a topographic map. “It’s distracting,” he says. “They throw out the topographic data in regions with actual data, so you can’t compare it.” It ends up being a background texture. Similarly, the offshore water is a dark blue and Canada is white, which pulls the ocean into the foreground, complicating our interpretation of the data. “To overcomplicate maps is a mistake,” he says, “Only show the one parameter and remove any potential distractions. You can throw all that stuff out without any negative repercussions at all.”
Layer 5: For all the problems with the WHRC map, Simmon says it’s actually one of the better examples of scientific visual design. “Their palette is vastly superior to what most of what NASA and other research institutions put out.”
Simmon sees a community beset by problems owing to legacies of early software. “The scientists are pressing buttons in their software and getting the results,” he says, while the software was made by people “doing things to optimize it to be as fast as possible or work on an 8-bit monitor and the code was just never updated.” As a result, we get a visual tradition based on computational expediency which becomes what the scientific community is accustomed to seeing.
Simmon says that there is a great deal to be learned by looking at the work of cartographers. “A lot of these presentation problems that scientists struggle with all the time were solved by mapmakers 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago or longer,” he says, “In a lot of cases I’m just applying other people’s older techniques to these computer data sets. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit that could be improved.”
Layer 6：公众的良好信息设计与清晰度和影响有关。Simmon说，他作为信息设计师的主要目标是“与人几乎产生情感反应”。他想首先使“获得它的东西”尽可能容易，同时保留显示屏上尽可能多的信息，以便您越多地查看它，您看到的就越多。“这是创建信息层次结构的古典设计意识。”
[You can follow Robert Simmon on Twitter at@rsimmon。]