Throughout the semester, we have learned the importance of science visualization to communicate complex information. It is a way to give our data a voice by presenting it in an easy to digest visual format. But just having effective science communication products is not enough, the next step is to make sure that our message is being broadly disseminated. In this age of cyberspace, nothing beats the World Wide Web (Web) as a great communication platform. With over 3 billion Internet users all over the world, the web gives us the capability to tell our story to a wide range of audiences.

The use of the web as part of our science communication arsenal is very powerful, here are some of the reasons as discussed during our last class:

The web is a great equalizer. The web gives us a publishing platform to share our information on a level field. Your website lives on the same Internet as other websites. It is also now more available to a lot of people - gone are the days of intensive coding and “shady” backdoor to build a website. Different service-based options are now available that can give you the ability to build a very high quality website with little experience. No matter your level of experience, there’s a tool out there to serve your needs.

More people in more places use the web. The number of Internet users has greatly expanded in the last decade. More and more people are using the web to communicate and to find different information. Recently, trend is moving towards the use of mobile devices. Thirty-five percent of users are now accessing the web through their phones or tablets. Mobile devices are also the entry point for people with no computers or laptops; thus can be an effective way to access disadvantaged communities. Be it through the computer or various mobile devices, websites work well in different platforms.

The web presents opportunity to serve as thought leaders. Publishing scientific journals or delivering presentations can be infrequent. Through writing blogs, you can share your ideas right away and you can regularly give update on your ongoing work. Blogging in a scientific capacity is now being looked at as part of the service requirements for those in the academe or government institutions. Having web presence is a great addition to your teaching and research portfolios.

Web design if you go deeper has a lot of depth, but the barrier to get started is very small. Here are some important considerations in Web design that was offered in class:

• Plan appropriately. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish with your website. Know what to include and NOT to include. Be aware of what you can share over the web, especially if it will conflict with future publications.
• Know your audience. Build a product for a reason, successful products need to understand and meet user needs. Set a user task to validate your website's usability.
• Building a website is an evolving process. Develop a content strategy that will help you evaluate your effectiveness (i.e. use of web analytics such as Google analytics). The success of your website is primarily determined by your content, be ready to maintain and update to remain relevant.
• Lessons learned in class carry over in web design. Sketching your ideas or creating a prototype of your website is exactly like storyboarding. It is easier to change your design when it's still in paper compared to when you've already done some work.
• Do a comparative analysis. Before you begin, find great examples of websites. Determine which aspects work and which ones do not.
• Understand what makes a great website. Generally, a great website takes into consideration the design, content, technology, user experience and user interface. Additionally, there are a lot of resources that offers web design tips (websites and video tutorials).

Another aspect of the web that we tackled during class was the use of different web-based data visualization tools which enable users to quickly create interactive charts, graphs, etc. Although it is easy to get started, doing minor changes can be tricky. From the class general consensus, it's still better to manually clean up graphs or charts using what was taught in the data visualization section of our class.

Web design has certainly progressed through the years. My own personal experience stems back many years ago, as a High School senior learning basic HTML (HyperText Markup Language) to create simple webpages. Fortunately, I've had the opportunity in the last two years to try my hand in "modern" web design (use of CMS or Content Management System). I've gone from managing the IAN blogs as part of my work, to studying different CMS and finally building a website as a personal project. I did countless hours of research, but in the end, what helped me most was the actual doing (with lots of trial-and-error and Google searches along the way!).

Finally, as a tribute to our wonderful class and a very engaging semester, I have built a simple website for our Science Visualization class. It is still a work in progress and depending on future classes, we might even expand its capabilities. Please feel free to share your ideas on how else we can improve this site! And to all our Science Visualization students, continue with your OWN website, have fun, share with us your link and stay connected!