Creating Aesthetically Pleasing SBGN Visualisations for Presentation and Exploration

Visualisations are widely used to present, assess, and convey data and understanding in systems biology and other fields, and graphical representations of data and information should be precise, visually engaging, informative, and aesthetically pleasing. The Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) is a standard for visual representations of processes and networks in systems biology in the form of SBGN maps. It defines graphical elements and connection rules for knowledge representation in the form of maps. Whereas the form of the map elements is defined, those map elements have to be placed in a proper way in order to obtain useful and aesthetically pleasing visualisations. Here, we present layout considerations and guidelines for SBGN maps, as well as workflows for SBGN-ED as a tool for crafting visually pleasing SBGN visualisations for presentation and exploration.