10 Poster Presentation

POSTER PRESENTATION

What is a poster? 

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A poster is a tool to present work to an audience who is walking through a hallway or exhibit. In poster presentations at conferences, the presenter usually stands next to the poster, thus allowing for passers-by to engage in one-on-one discussions with the presenter. In other situations such as the hallways of laboratories, universities, and corporations, posters are stand-alone presentations for passers-by

An effective poster … 

Focuses on a single message.

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Lets graphs and images tell the story; uses text sparingly.

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Keeps the sequence wellordered and obvious.

An affective poster… ... engage colleagues in conversation.

... get your main

point(s) across to as many people as possible.

Poster features

General guidelines to make a poster 

First, the title should quickly orient the audience. 1. Make the title the most prominent block of text on the poster (either center or left justify at the top). 2. Do not typeset the title in all capital letters (such text is difficult to read). 3. Use small words such as of, from, with, to, the, a, an, and to separate details in the title.

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Second, the poster should orient the audience to the subject and purpose.

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Third, the specific sections such as the results should be easy to locate on the poster.

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Fourth, you should design the individual sections of a poster so that they can be quickly read.

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For more information: http:// www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/IndexStart.html

Your poster should ... •use a visual grammar to guide readers to the important parts of your poster. •use a column format to make your poster easier to read in a crowd. •use organization cues to guide readers through your poster. •use "reader gravity“ which pulls the eye from top to bottom and left to right (Wheildon 1995). •use headings intelligently to help readers find your main points and key information. •balance the placement of text and graphics to create visual appeal. •use white space creatively to help define the flow of information.

Visual grammar is a graphic hierarchy that helps readers identify the most important parts of your poster. A good use of grammar hierarchy

But not…

Balance and white space Balance occurs when images and text are reflected (at least approximately) across a central horizontal, vertical, or diagonal axis. This axis is know as the axis of symmetry.

Horizontal & Vertical Symmetry

Diagonal Symmetry

Asymmetry (text-heavy on left, imageheavy on right)

Use organizational cues Another way to make sure readers know how to navigate your poster is to use cues - numbers, letters, arrows - to guide them.

Minimize text and make it large!!

•Minimize text - use images and graphs instead. •Keep text elements to 50 words or fewer. •Use phrases rather than full sentences. •Title should be at least 5cm tall.

Many ineffective posters suffer from easy-to-fix problems, including… 

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objective(s) and main point(s) hard to find text too small poor graphics poor organization

POSTER SAMPLES