Designing a Great Poster

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Designing a Great Poster

• APS Professional Skills Course
• Making Scientific Presentations Critical First
  Skills

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Poster Designs

• There are gradients of poster designs
• You want to be in the middle!

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Poster Design vs. Impact

• Bad content good design
• Low impact
• May stop to look but will not stay
• Good content bad design
• Low impact
• May not even stop to look
• Good content good design
• High impact
• Stop, look and ask questions!

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A Well-Designed Poster

• Focused
• Single message
• Graphics
• Tell a good story
• Text used sparingly
• Ordered
• Flow is well-ordered and obvious

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Poster Size

• Size of poster can vary depending on
  meeting/conference
• Be sure to double-check before starting to
  prepare the poster
• Check what size poster your university or your
  local print shop can print
• Check on the cost, if this is an issue

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Printing Options

• Panels vs. one large poster
• Glossy paper vs. regular paper
• Foam core vs. cardboard mounting
• Print yourself vs. university vs. copy center

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Reasons for Printing Options

• Depends on funds available
• Depends on your time frame
• Restrictions for transporting poster
• Airline vs. car
• Other
• Consider post-meeting display
• Will your department display it after the meeting?

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Design Software

• PowerPoint
• Templates available
• Restricted to 56 page width
• QuarkXPress, InDesign, LaTeX
• Time consuming to learn
• Microsoft Word / Text Editor
• Not as flexible

Make sure you will have departmental support
for the package you chose!
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Graphing Software

• Sigma Plot
• Prism / Origin / Igor
• Microsoft Excel
• Not as flexible

Make sure you will have departmental support
for the package you chose!
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Types of Poster Viewers

• Researchers in your specific field
• Will come regardless of poster design
• Researchers in your general field
• Main audience you need to attract
• Can give valuable suggestions on work
• Researchers outside your field
• Need to attract them to get them to stop
• Valuable suggestions on related work outside field

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Overall Style of Poster

• Light-colored background
• No cute or theme backgrounds or elements
• 2-3 colors for emphasis
• Remember red-green color-blind people
• Colors on a screen may not print as the same
  color
• Consider running it through free Vischeck
  (http//www.vischeck.com/) service for color
  considerations
• Graphics heavy text light
• Poster text should be large enough to be read
  easily from at least 6 ft away

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Poster Draft

• Make a sketch of the poster
• Use full size printouts of text, graphics
• Plan the flow in 3, 4, or 5 columns
• Most people tend to read up to down and then
  from left to right
• Allows better flow at poster presentation
• Use visual clues of organization
• Arrows, diagrams, numbers, letters, etc.

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Poster Draft cont.

• Consider balance and white space

• 20-25 text (or less)
• 40-45 graphics
• 30-40 empty space

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Poster Draft cont.
Too much text ?
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Poster Draft cont.
Better?
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Its a Good Idea to

• Start early
• Set deadlines
• Plan in additional time for set backs
• Printing delays
• Make backups
• Editing
• Proofreading

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A Little About Fonts

• San serif fonts
• No curly-cues on letters
• Good for titles and headings
• Can be used for text (depends on personal
  preference)
• Examples Arial, Tahoma, Verdana
• Serif fonts
• Have the curly-cues
• Good for text (depends on personal preference)
• Hard to read easily in titles and headings
• Examples Times Roman, Courier, Bookman

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Use of Fonts

• Vary font for Sections
• Vary font for emphasis
• Bold / Underline / Italics
• Color
• Highlight
• Change font sizes
• Methods
• Figure legends

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Poster Title

• Runs across entire top of poster
• Sans serif font (e.g., Tahoma, Arial, Verdana)
• Boldface
• 72-120 point
• Should be readable 15 - 20 feet away
• Initial cap only (capitalized words hard to read)

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Poster Subtitles

• Authors' names
• Use first names for authors to facilitate
  interactions
• School / Institution name
• Minimize institutional logo if allowed
• 48-80 point
• Same font as title

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Section Headings

• Same font as title
• 36-42 point
• Boldface

Example Question I Hypothesis Methods Summary
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Poster Text

• Font (your choice)
• People tend to have personal preferences on font
• 24-36 point
• Appropriate line spacing (NOT crowded)
• Left-justify or full-justify
• Add emphasis with bold or color
• Includes references and acknowledgements (use
  smaller font)

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Designing Figures/Tables

• Simple and clean, showing relationships
• No colored backgrounds
• Figures/photos preferred over tables(No one
  thinks in words!)
• Legends
• Short as possible
• Use bullets, short sentences, or simple words
• Use titles on figures and tables

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Designing Figures

• Use color instead of patterns or open bars in
  histograms
• Can just be black and white
• Use color to help with distinguishing data
• Keep colors the same on all figures
• Label data lines directly, using large type and
  color, instead of a key
• Lines should be larger than normal

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Example
Figure 1. UTP-mediated vasoconstriction in
isolated small pulmonary arteries from lean and
obese rats. There are no statistically
significant differences between groups. Data are
presented as means SEM. N3 groups.
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Hints for Photographs

• High resolution
• Use 150-300 dots/inch (dpi) images only
• No web graphics (72 dpi too low)
• Matte finish eliminates glare
• Add a thin gray or black border to photos
• Permission to use if needed
• Animal models
• Equipment
• Downloaded from web site

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Bringing Additional Multimedia

• Pros
• Enhances poster content
• Allows for greater interaction
• Brings curious onlookers to poster
• Cons
• Dont expect power or internet access
• Can turn interested readers away if large crowd
  gathers to watch
• Requires equipment with associated potential
  problems (malfunction, battery dies, theft, etc.)

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Handy Tips

• Print out draft panels and look at them from 6 ft
  away
• Proofread everything before printing
• Have someone else proofread too
• Print out small versions to hand out

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Whats Wrong With This Slide?
Figure 1 shows a close up picture of a Wyoming
toad (Bufo hemiophrys baxteri). These toads were
once abundant in the wetlands and also irrigated
meadows of the western state, Wyomings, SE
plains. We decided to use these toads for our
study since they are fairly large and also have
many unique and different characteristics and
easy to catch.
Figure 1. A good example of a Wyoming toad (Bufo
hemiophrys baxteri) as seen in the grass in the
plains of Wyoming.
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Remember

• The design should enhance the reading of the
  poster, not detract
• Dont over-design your poster
• Content is most important
• There should be 30-40 empty space on the final
  design
• Have fun!