Put your poster’s central focus in the title’s first few words to draw attention to it Abstract # Authors names go here Affiliations may be.
Download ReportTranscript Put your poster’s central focus in the title’s first few words to draw attention to it Abstract # Authors names go here Affiliations may be.
Put your poster’s central focus in the title’s first few words to draw attention to it Authors names go here
Affiliations may be listed here on this line
Abstract # Introduction
Go to
http://colinpurrington.com/wp content/uploads/2011/09/scientific poster-advice-purrington.pdf
and read every single word on Dr. Colin Purrington’s poster. Take notes. Then go to his poster design website at
http://colinpurrington.com/tips/poste r-design
and read that too. Seriously.
Finally – read every word on this template. It also has good advice.
When you are done, do a “save as” of this template, setting the print dimensions to the correct size for your conference (see poster size tutorial at
http://www.makesigns.com/tutorials/
). Resize the text boxes as needed, and insert your own content, following Dr. P’s design advice slavishly. His science posters win rave reviews.
Key Findings
• • • • Your key finding should include the most interesting / significant results you have to offer. I.e. the stuff you really want people to remember Positioning it in this space puts your most important points front and center, literally.
Use a bullet point list instead of paragraphs of text. Put at least 15pt of white space between bullet points Graphics are good to use if they will help make your key findings more understandable/memorable Figure 3. When Pigs Fly. An eye-catching photo or figure is always good. But only if it sends the right message about your key findings. Which this one may not.
Methods
Resize the boxes in this column to fit the relative amount of space you need for Introduction vs. Methods. Choose a font size large enough so that the printed poster can easily be read from 6-10 feet away. If people have to stand closer than that to read all the words, you are using too many words. See this website for tips on poster text font sizes:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair projects/project_display_board_fonts.shtml
Put at least 15 pts of white space between paragraphs.
The information in the conference program and the information on your poster do not need to be identical. Put maximum information in the program, not on the poster.
Outline / summarize your methods and, if necessary, provide handouts with more information in an attached manila envelope.
Results
Your poster’s main purpose is to be visually interesting and easy to comprehend at a glance because if it ISN’T, it will never get a chance to achieve its secondary purpose of communicating your science. One trick … use graphics (pictures, graphs, tables, and figures); they can grab attention and encapsulate or emphasize your data. But be warned -- if a graphic doesn’t make immediate sense to a casual reader, it is hurting, not helping your presentation.
For example, do not ask readers to slog through reams of data on your tables. Bizarre as it may seem, other people do not find the minutiae of your data nearly as interesting as you do. Use formatting to emphasize the important cells so that key data really jump out at table readers.
Up to 10% of men are red-green color blind so try to avoid these color combinations in graphs, figures, and tables: • • Green & red; Blue-green & grey;
Figure 2. Behold! This may be
• Bright/light green & yellow;
an accurate picture of your
• Pale pink & grey;
Eureka moment, but it is not
• Red & brown;
good for a poster. The impact
• Blue & purple/lilac.
will be lost on color blind people.
Also see:
http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2013/04/17/designers-need-to-understand color-blindness/
for additional tips on how to make your graphs and charts easy for color blind people to see.
Finally, spellcheck will not catch misspellings like “their” when you meant “there.” Proofread!!! Better yet, have someone who didn’t have any role in putting the poster together proofread it. S/he will see things that have become invisible to you through having read it so many times. BTW: There is a fabulous and funny infographic on the most common misspelled words at
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
.
Figure 1. Do Not Try This At
Home! A picture is worth a thousand words. Use a photo, drawing, or figure to illustrate your methodology.
Conclusions
The boxes in this column can be resized to fit the relative amount of space you need for Methods vs. Conclusions.
Conclusions are NOT a restatement of key findings. Instead, they say what you have concluded from the findings and what you think should be done next.
Bear in mind that many people read the conclusions section first so lead with the single most compelling point and make certain that it is not necessary for someone to have read the results section first in order for your conclusions to make sense.