Poster Design I

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Poster Design I
Presentation Critiques Practice
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Presentation Topics

• Posters and Your Professional Image
• Considering Your Audience
• Organizing Perception with Space Logic
• Guiding Viewers Understanding
• Giving Your Talk

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Posters and Your Professional Image

• Posters define projects AND people by displaying
• Innovative quality of thinking and approach
• Collegial relationships
• (who works together)
• Value of work done

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Poster Session Audiences

• Have little time
• Want to choose posters
• Need a gist to make decision
• Have professional interests
• Are open to excitement
• Uncertain about personal interaction

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Considering Your Audience

• Why are they interested?
• What are their backgrounds?
• How will they benefit?
• What are their questions?
• LIST CONTENT QUESTIONS!

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Poster Criteria Link Audience and Design

• Accessible
• Usefulness
• Understandable
• Emotionally pleasing

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Design Process for Big Posters

• Designing written documents differs from
  designing posters
• Must display the whole argument
• at once, not piece by piece
• Choose perceptual guides
• Select sufficient detail for understanding
• Establish feelings of rapport

Music must be heard over time, not all at
once. Posters are the opposite.
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Posters Answers to 7 Questions Enhance Your
Image

1. Problem?
2. Context within the field?
3. Importance?
4. Method(s)?
5. Findings (to date or expected)?
6. Unique contribution?
7. Possible applications, value
   to society?

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What is YOUR News?

• Of the 7 questions, which is most important?
• Your results or conclusions?
• What sets your work apart?
• New theoretical approach / methods /
  interpretation of data
• What was your focus?
• What opposition is involved?

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Visualize NEWS with Space Logic - Step 1
Organizing Perception

• Identify your main point or news
• Imagine the whole message
• Identify key parts
• Claims
• Evidence
• Organize space to map your news

How do I create a map?
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Visualize NEWS with Space Logic - Step 2
What kind of idea is your News?

• Is The News problem / solution?
• Is it an image?
• Is it a contrast? (old vs. new)
• Is it a demonstration?

What is Space Logic?
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Visualize NEWS with Space Logic - Step 3
Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Try

• Is sequence crucial to the news?
• Is a design, piece of equipment, or image central
  to the news?
• Does the news divide into two parts?

• Horizontal layout
• 3-column layout with wide center column
• Two-part design, subdivided

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Visual Efficiency

• Make every glance count
• How the whole goes together
• Where to find specific content
• Convey relative importance
• Think of Suitcase Packing
• Everything goes with something else
• Travel light
• No more than 7 key points

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Using Only the Evidence Needed

• Over abundant info delays understanding
• Whats really critical to accepting the NEWS?
• Pick out the 2 to 5 critical pieces
• Find visual or pictorial equivalents
• Dont give a paragraph if a quick pix will do

It is the claim of this investigation that the
determining factor that had previously been
relied on is in fact precipitously Underappreciate
d in the general situation that has prevailed for
the past thirty years in American science. This
is in part due to the lack of response from the
international community that relies on a few
journals over others and as a result has not be
aware of the key elements prevailing in the
investigation of elemental particles in this
sector of the atomic table. The visualization
testing that has been occurring in France in the
past several years had yielded some results of
note but the need for additional testing and
confirmation has caused the community as a whole
to overlook possible applications.
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Chunking Information

• Rank the info MUST / Good / nice
• Include the MUST
• Add some Good
• Save nice details for discussion or handout

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Space Logic Guides Perception
Space Logic cues eye movement

• Left-to-right flow in vertical columns
• Left-to-right flow in horizontal rows
• Centered image with explanations
• Two fields in contrast

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Guide Viewers Perception with Flow

• Organize the overall layout to reflect your
  visualization of the NEWS
• Put the gist upper left or at conventional
  entry point of design
• Flow to lower right hand corner

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Arrange Chunks into Path for Eyes
(Paths Fit Various Layouts)
Title Authors

• Flows top to bottom, left to right

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Title Authors

• Results

Methods

• Abstract

• Table 1

Fig 2
Intro
Conclusions
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L-to-R Flow in Rows
Title Authors

Abstract
References
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Centered Image Explanations
Title Authors
Abstract
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Two Fields in Contrast
Title Authors
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Sample Humanities Poster
Is Tolkiens Middle Earth Relevant Today?
Student Name E-mail
Image of London in WWII
Relevance Today
Relevance in WWII
Image of New York today
Pull-out quote Central point of argument
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Centered Image Explanations
Title Authors
Abstract
Same as this design but without centered title,
grid contrast
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Make News Understandable with Textual Guides

• Include introductory summary or abstract
• Tailor the summary into parts
• Use message headings
• Write agent / action / result sentences
• Reduce jargon

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Key Info in Left Column
One Option . . .
Title Authors
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Use Design Principles

• CONTRAST items to show difference
• ALIGN items meaningfully (alignment)
• PAIR related items (proximity)
• REPEAT elements for coherence (such as color)
• SUBORDINATE to show relationships

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Guide Viewers Perception

• Scale expresses relative importance
• Color adds emphasis or coherence
• Indenting shows subordination
• As in this example
• Blank space directs gaze

Blank space frames cart
Not enough blank space
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Principles of Explanation

• Introduce figure beforehand
• Discuss figure afterward
• Tag images with explanations

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Fat Text - - to - - Lean Text

• The ideal anesthetic should quickly make the
  patient unconscious but allow a quick return to
  consciousness, have few side effects, and be safe
  to handle.

• Ideal anesthetics
• Quick sedation
• Quick recovery
• Few side effects
• Safe to handle

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Font Style and Size

• Title (6 8 words)
• Sans Serif
• 96 - 120 pt
• Headings (3 words)
• Sans Serif
• 36 - 48 pt

• Text
• Sans serif or Serif
• 30 - 36 pt.

10 to 1 rule 10 ft. viewing distance requires 1
inch or 72 points font height
1 inch 6 picas 72 points or 6 pts/pica
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Details Matter!

• Check for consistent formatting
• Check grammar spelling
• Use a correct bibliography
• Give credit to others
• (to establish your character and ethics)
• Include contact info

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Giving Your Talk

• Imagine your audiences list of questions
• Know where each answer is on the poster
• Have a preferred starting point
• Be a tour guide
• Imagine the trip from viewers perspective
• Go from known to new

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Communicate with Confidence

• Talk to audience, not poster
• Stand straight, arms down, chin up
• Integrate gestures

ELEC 301 poster session
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Invite Audience Participation

• Use voice to communicate enthusiasm
• Smile to create relationships
• Encourage discussion, questions

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P-Talks Are Not Speeches

• Audience changes, plan several versions
• 30-second to 3 minutes
• Use welcoming body language
• Bring newcomers into the discussion without
  really interrupting your talk
• Practice to test your poster design
  Is it talkable?

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Enjoy Being on Stage
Worlds Best Project!
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Lead through Excellence in Engineering
Communication

• More resources are available for you
• under Engineering Communication at Connexions
  at http//cnx.org
• at the Cain Project site at http//www.owlnet.rice
  .edu/cainproj
• in your course Communication Folder in OWLSPACE.