Top 4 tips for designing a graphical abstract

Graphical abstracts are a powerful tool that you can use to visually summarize and communicate your research. It is often the first thing a reader looks at in a journal article but knowing how to design a clear and compelling visual can be challenging. In this guide, you'll learn actionable tips for designing an effective graphical abstract to inform and impress your readers.
There's nothing worse than finishing your figure only to realize it doesn't fit the guidelines. Before getting started with your graphical abstract, make sure to check the journal guidelines and specs, specifically: font, dimensions and colors. This simple step only takes a few minutes but can save you a lot of time in the long run.
Creating a figure from scratch can be daunting. To help you kick-start your figure-making, start by focusing on these three areas:
The main message of your study. Use 1-2 sentences to summarize your research paper. This is the foundation of your graphical abstract.
Your layout. Gather examples of other graphical abstracts to determine which layout will work best for yours. Pro tip: browse the BioRender template gallery for inspiration.
Your story flow. Sketch your ideas on paper. Get your thoughts down and create a rough draft.
Once you have the content of your graphical abstract planned out, you'll need to create a clear, effective design. Here are four simple design tips to help guide you:
Check out our Designing graphical abstract webinar to see these tips in action! [Here are some useful timestamps so you can quickly jump to the sections you're interested in: layout and story flow (9:19), color (16:16), arrows and text (27:47), alignment and spacing(29:44).]
When it comes to designing any type of science figure, it's important to focus on clarity. The following are a few of the most common design mistakes that can make your figure appear crowded, confusing, and/or difficult to read:
1) Low contrast or patterned backgrounds.
2) Overlapping elements, especially arrows.
3) Using too many colors (try limiting to 2-3).
4) Drop shadows and word art.
5) Unnecessary elements. Minimalism is better than crowdedness.
Absolutely! You can design beautiful graphical abstracts in minutes with our library of over 10,000 scientifically-accurate icons and powerful design tools! Plus, in BioRender you'll find hundreds of pre-made, fully-editable templates so you can find inspiration and create your graphical abstracts even faster!
Click here to open a fully editable and downloadable version of this infographic in BioRender.
Click here to open a fully-editable version of this template in BioRender
Click here to open a fully editable and downloadable version of this infographic in BioRender.
The visuals used in this article were created fully in BioRender and are available as editable templates.