Visual Science Communication: The next generation scientific poster

To communicate by visual means lies in the nature of humankind. Today, in the natural sciences, visualizations transfer data into useful and communicable information. But which types of visualizations are best suited to represent scientific findings in a clear and comprehensible way? This is where visual science communication research starts. To communicate the latest scientific findings to the public, we have developed a new format that combines the traditional scientific poster with a new and innovative approach: the next-generation interactive scientific poster. New technical possibilities offered by interactive media help to transform scientific findings in an intuitive way that allows, due to interaction, to adjust the level of detail and information that is presented to various audiences (see Figure 1). We explain how we have conceptualized, developed and designed the interactive scientific poster »Explore the Ocean« with an interdisciplinary team of scientists and information designers to create a platform to bring ocean observations and findings to a broad public to improve ocean literacy in society. Additionally, the interactive poster also provides an opportunity for scientists to communicate their often complex results to stakeholders. One of the biggest challenges for visual science communication is to develop effective visualizations that are attractive and emotional, yet scientifically accurate and substantial. For the production of these new visualizations, an interdisciplinary team is key to providing state-of-the-art design and programming skills but also to ensuring scientific accuracy. In this perspective article, we describe the advantages of interactive media in the visual communication of marine sciences. Furthermore, the suitability of interactive media to raise ocean literacy and societal connections to the ocean is discussed. We conclude that the collaboration between scientists and design experts has significant advantages and enables the transformation of scientific findings through advanced visualization techniques into a consistent language and effective communication media for specific audiences.