Artistry

[CaptainSifff]

@tobyhodges raised the idea of bringing in more artsy content into the paper, because let's face it, it is a text desert right now..... Let's collect some of the ideas in this issue. Especially since we have the offer by @malvikasharan: hand-sketched designs can be given to me (see contact details above) for giving to a professional illustrator in November

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Here is a sketch (I'm clearly no artist)

The idea is that there is a person in the middle holding up his two hands. The left side of the picture is the Software Engineering side reflected in background, clothing and the left eye has a microchip inside. The right side is the domain scientist side (think atoms, cells, chemical flasks, ancient scrolls, artefacts, etc.).

Above each hand there is the collection of values and techniques that make a RSE. And that is the part where I could use some input. E.g. for the SE side I couldn't come up with actual values, while I also lack specific techniques from the science side. What values/techniques would you like to see? Or is it actually the defining role of the RSE to combine values of the scientific world with techniques from software engineering?

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Possible SE Values:

• Software Quality
• Collaboration
• Security
• Scalability
• Maintainability
• Modularity
• Testing and Verification
• Agility

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Possible Science Values:

• Reproducibility
• Transparency
• Innovation

[CaptainSifff]

Malvika: hand-sketched designs can be given to me (see contact details above) for giving to a professional illustrator in November

[juckel]

I liked the idea discussed today that we use some standard icons throughout the paper(s) and in the artistry. Maybe we can use FontAwesome (https://fontawesome.com/icons) or FlatIcon (https://www.flaticon.com)?

[MakisH]

I like the suggestion of having a person with skillsets around!

Building up on that:

• The person could actually be Kay, the imaginary character used in the examples, sister of Kim. This would give a more human-related touch/emphasis to the paper.
• Instead of a list of terms, I would make those tangible items: I imagine Kay with a semi-open backpack, with items popping out.
• The terms/items would be their skills, following the same terminology used in the rest of the paper. Not necessarily the abbreviated terms.
• The terms can also change later, since I assume we will have a vector format.
• We should not focus on tools and specifics, but it wouldn't harm if Kay had a laptop with stickers being the logos of the different tools.
• I would make that a central figure of the paper, which would act like a "graphical summary". That would also be great for communicating the paper.

I really enjoy reading comics and any similar kind of strips, but my drawing skills are very very basic. If we can get an illustrator, I would be happy to work with them, but I assume this will take significant amount of time.

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Another source of icons: https://iconduck.com/sets/licons-icon-set

[fer-rum]

You could also try flaticon (as already suggested by @juckel ) which has free icons also available as EPS, which TeX can handle natively.

Another option could be svgrepo

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Here is my current mapping based on fontawesome:

LIBS boxes-packaging

SWREPOS code-pull-request

MOD laptop-code

SWLC circle-nodes

NEW person-rays

RC arrows-spin

SRU recycle

DOMREP folder

TEAM user-group

TEACH chalkboard-user

PM clipboard-list

DOCBB sitemap

[CaptainSifff]

Great work!

[MakisH]

Following up on https://github.com/CaptainSifff/paper_teaching-learning-RSE/issues/138#issuecomment-1783179966, here is how I imagine Kay:

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Ideas from call:

• add poster (showing shes part of research)
• let her talk to someone (better opportunity to show off communication skills)

[MakisH]

Follow-up suggestion:

[malvikasharan]

Hi folks, I have one slot where I can work on a sketch. Can you confirm which one you settled on? The one with Kay (research, communication and RSE skills) or a combination of the first two ideas?

Also, checkout these illustrations that are reusable: https://zenodo.org/record/7785796#.ZEE4GRXMLdq

[MakisH]

@malvikasharan so far, the ideas here are iterations, with the latest based on the previous one. Next meeting is on Friday, is this too late for you?

edit: I don't think we can directly reuse any of the available illustrations. This one was meant to be a visual table of contents / abstract.

[malvikasharan]

We have the artist working with the Book Dash attendees today. I was traveling this week hence did not have the chance to coordinate earlier.

If there is no concrete suggestion to take forward, I can wait for the next opportunity, but that will be in 2024.

[BeastyBlacksmith]

Another prototype thats not as busy. I wanted to have different backgrounds for the three sections, but Im running out of time

[malvikasharan]

Folks, I really like this: https://github.com/CaptainSifff/paper_teaching-learning-RSE/issues/138#issuecomment-1802527156

This is easy to implement and since I will also ask for unlabeled version, you can edit the text in that. What do you think?

[malvikasharan]

Also check these:

[MakisH]

Folks, I really like this: #138 (comment)

This is easy to implement and since I will also ask for unlabeled version, you can edit the text in that. What do you think?

I am biased since I proposed it, but if you think it is easy to implement, I think it is not that bad. This is more "fun", my second proposal is more informative/clear.

Whatever @CaptainSifff says.

Another prototype thats not as busy. I wanted to have different backgrounds for the three sections, but Im running out of time

If we add the words next to the symbols, I think this is more or less the same concept. Note that currently the text does not include the symbols.

Also check these:

Similar goal, but different content. I think that reusing this could be confusing for the reader and would need some additional relation in the text.

[HeidiSeibold]

Hi all! @MakisH made me aware of this discussion. I am happy to support here, if you like my simple drawings.

Here's an example: https://digital-research-academy.github.io/DRAdvent23/