I think showing the flow in this way is a super-good way to structure the figures. I would recommend making one additional figure to show the technology stack plus the "behind-the-scenes" flow.
Some suggestions to hopefully improve the figures - when you're read to make a next draft:
- For figure callouts (text added to figures) I recommend using verb phrases in imperative voice to make the figures feel more dynamic.
Some potential examples)
noun phrase (current) - Access Point
verb phrase (suggestion) - Step 1: Go to BioViz.org to access to CyVerse data gateway
noun phrase (current) - CyVerse single-login
verb phrase (suggested) - Step 2: Log in using CyVerse credentials
- Maybe you can number each image to make it more obvious that figures are describing a flow?
- I would use curved arrows to give the figures a more "flow-y" feel...just to highlight that you're talking about a process
- Also, I would recommend using now using colored arrows because the colors tend to distract a bit from the screen captures, which are way nicer to look at it and more important.
- I recommend laying out the figures using slide aspect ratios. For figures in a paper, it's fine to use these dimensions I think! And if your paper figures are using the slide dimensions, it will be extra easy to convert them to actual slides, thus giving a huge head start on preparing talks.
Created figure mockups .
I think the three main figures will cover:
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