Based on my own experience and

Hess, G.R., K. Tosney, and L. Liegel, 2006“Creating Effective Poster Presentations”

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters

Preparing and Presenting Posters

Carole Wilson, Ph.D.Department of Pathology

An effective poster is a visual communications tool

An effective poster will help you…

…engage others in conversation

…get your major points acrossto as many people as possible

A good poster has three primary characteristics:

Imparts a single messageFocused

Graphic

Ordered

Relies on images and graphs

Sequence clear and obvious

A poster is not just a research paper stuck to aboard! It uses visual grammar to show, not tell.

Ineffective posters most often suffer from…

• Hard-to-find objectives• Text too small and too abundant• Poor use of graphics and color• Being overly “busy”• Poor organization…but these problems are easily fixed!

Step 1: Write a good abstract

• Set the context - why is the work important?• Describe the objectives• Briefly explain the methods

• Unless the research is about methods, this section should not be a major focus of the abstract or poster

• State results and conclusions

Should be a succinct description of your work

But don’t include the abstract on the poster - it’s redundant. The poster is your abstract, in visual form

Step 2: Plan your poster

• What message do I want to convey?• How much space will I be allotted for my poster?• What format do I want to use?

• Multiple pieces vs.single sheet

Things to consider:

A good idea before starting: Draft layout of poster

Step 3: Design poster for 3 audiences

• your field• includes your competitors• will automatically be attracted to your poster

• fields closely related to yours• need to supply context• may not be familiar with jargon

• unrelated fields• must clearly explain the problem and the solution

People in…

Also consider the type of meeting

• Specialists only?• you can use jargon and take other shortcuts• background information already known

• Wide-ranging discipline?• avoid jargon and keep language simple• avoid acronyms and abbreviations

• Very general audience?• explain in the most basic terms possible

Step 4: Organize poster for easy viewing

Lay out in column format to allow smooth flow ofthe audience - people read English top to bottom(called “reader gravity”) and left to right

Don’t use a row-oriented layoutThis plan moves readers past your poster quickly and it may be difficult for them to work back to

the beginning.

Also, use organizational cues to help readers navigate your poster• Numbers, arrows, or letters

If your poster is easy to view,more people will read it!

Step 5: Use a visual hierarchy to indicate importance

• Title is biggest; headings next; then explanations• Use figures and graphs to make evidence obvious

• these should be readable from 4 ft away

Headings should state the message:Instead of just “Results”, identify the results

Step 6: Put take-home messages in

large headings

• Minimize text and make it large• Title and major headings should be readable at 6 ft, rest at 3 ft

Step 7: Use readable text

Recommendations for text:• Don’t use all capitals - hard to read• Use phrases rather than full sentences• Use a serif font (e.g. Times) for most text• Sans serif font (e.g. Helvetica) OK for titles and headings• Use at least 24 point font for text, 36 for headings• Pay attention to text size in figures - it must also be large• Title should be at least 5 cm tall• Use zoom feature of Powerpoint to test readability

Useful guideline: If you print your entire poster on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper, you should be able to read it!

Never, ever use a font size of 12 point or below!

Step 8: Let graphics dominate

BIG figures that use color

• Use graphs, figures, cartoons, and illustrations• Avoid using formats with keys or legends - explain directly on figure

Use simple two-dimensional graphs…

…but not straight out of Excel

What’s wrong with this graph?• gray background, gridlines unnecessary• too many values on x-axis• font too small• y-axis title sideways• legend taking up space• need to differentiate lines by line type and color

Use simple two-dimensional graphs

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Use the space you have available

Don’t over-emphasize text

Step 9: Organize visually

Group materialinto units

• Keep panels similar in shape and orientation• Use color for emphasis in a consistent way

Visually separateinto units

Recommendations for color:• Use a light color background and dark color letters for contrast• Avoid dark backgrounds with light color text - this is difficult and tiring to read• Stick to a theme of 2 or 3 colors• Overly bright colors may be attractive initially, but will wear out readers’ eyes• Consider people who have problems distinguishing colors

• red vs. green common

How colors look to people with red-greencolor blindness

Strawberries as they appear to a person with full-color vision

Strawberries as they appear to a person who cannot tell red

from green

One in twelve males (8%) and one in 200 females (0.5%) are red-green color blind. There will be about 10 color blind people in a room of 250!

From www.vischeck.com

Line Drawings• Make lines thicker, symbols larger• Use various types of lines and symbols

• Avoid separate keys. Add labels within the drawings YESNO

From “How to make figures and presentations that are friendly

to color blind people” Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito

Step 10: Discard details

Pare down to the essentials

• Simplify. Provide details in person, and only as needed• State your results with headings, and focus on results and conclusions

Step 11: Make strong conclusions

Title makes a definitive statement

Summary states results

Conclusions interpret

results

Your poster should clearly conveyyour take-home message

Unlike this one!

Large type states methods,

not results

Resultsartfully buried in a

methods description

Carefullyomits

interpretations

Poster Examples

Too much white space

Poster Examples

Poster Examples

Poster Examples

Poster Examples

Before

Poster Examples

After

Poster Examples

Step 12: Assemble and print out poster

Powerpoint commonly used for making single-sheetlarge-format posters

To start:

1. Open “New Presentation” under “File” menu2. Go to “Page Setup” under “File” menu and

choose “Custom” under “Size”3. Enter desired dimensions

• Limit for Powerpoint is 56 x 56 inches• For larger posters (e.g. 72-inch width), prepare

poster as 36 inches and have printed at twice the size

4. Treat this page as a big slide: add text, objects, etc. just as if you were making a slide for a talk

Tips for adding images and graphs:• Use JPEGs of images on your poster

• Usually small files, easy to change size without losing resolution

• Avoid using images directly from the Web• Too low resolution

• For graphs: • after plotting data in Excel, make changes and then import as a picture• To make any additional changes, use “ungroup” to convert to Microsoft Office drawing• label axes and add other information directly in Powerpoint

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When you’re ready, submit Powerpoint file for printing at the UW - allow two days’ turnaround unless you request a rush job

http://depts.washington.edu/hsasf/posters/index.htmlWebsite:

After all material is added to poster:• Go back and edit - cut, cut, cut!• Have other authors (if applicable) and colleagues critique poster

The Actual Presentation• Use the graphics as a basis

• Prepare 2 and 5 minute tours of your poster

• Face the audience and tell them…

• the context of the problem and why it’s important (Introduction)

• your objective and what you did (Objective and Methods)

• what you found (Results)

• what the results mean in terms of the context (Discussion)

Consider having 8.5 x 11 miniatures of your poster, detailed methods, and/or reprints of papers available as handouts

Copyright ©2003 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Keegan, D. A. et al. CMAJ 2003;169:1291-1292Fig. 1: Study presenter in lavender-coloured blouse (chosen to

coordinate with poster colour) and in rust-coloured blouse (chosen to clash with poster)

Effect of Colour Coordination of Attire with PosterPresentation on Poster Popularity

Copyright ©2003 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Keegan, D. A. et al. CMAJ 2003;169:1291-1292

Resources• Hess, George R., Tosney, Kathryn, and Liegel, Leon. 2006 “Creating Effective Poster Presentations” www.ncsu.edu/project/posters• Purrington, Colin. 2006 “Advice on Designing Scientific Posters” www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm• Block, Steven M. 1996. Do's and Don’ts of Poster Presentations. Biophys. J. 71:3527-3529.• Briscoe, Mary Helen. 1996. Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and Publications. Springer, New York.• Gosling, Peter J. 1999. Scientist's Guide to Poster Presentations. Kluwer Academic Press, New York.• Woolsey, J.D. 1989. Combating Poster Fatigue: How to Use Visual Grammar and Analysis to Effect Better Visual Communication. Trends in Neurosciences 12:325-332.

Poster template available as Powerpoint file from:www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm