What is a poster for Poster Presentations Planning

What is a poster for? Poster Presentations: Planning the Content Professor Brian Ford-Lloyd University Graduate School

Some posters give you a lot of information

Some posters give you some information, but maybe only to those who are already in the know

Other posters have a big take-home message

While others don’t seem to tell you anything – maybe just purely decorative?

Outline In this session we will cover: o Power. Point as a medium for poster presentations o Content of your poster o Presentation of your poster o How poster sessions operate o Designing the outline of your poster

Some (of many) useful web sites http: //www. cns. cornell. edu/documents/Scientific. Posters. pdf http: //colinpurrington. com/tips/academic/posterdesign http: //people. eku. edu/ritchisong/posterpres. html http: //www. makesigns. com/tutorials/poster-designlayout. aspx

Poster design in Power. Point o o o Posters are designed as a single slide Go into File- Page Setup Set size as 594 mm x 841 mm (A 1) or 841 mm x 1189 mm (A 0) Consider the orientation Consider the layout, design and colour scheme You might use a picture relevant to your work as a background

Poster design in Power. Point o Text can be typed directly in or cut and paste from existing documents o Import charts/tables/diagrams o Print the poster out at A 4: the text should still be readable at this size – Some possible font sizes?

o Powerpoint o Single slide - go into slide setup and set size and orientation o o Think about overall design Colour scheme Background - can use images relevant to work o Text can be developed in MS Word and then pasted into the poster as a text box o Figures and Tables can be done in the same way o Font size should allow printed version as A 4 sheet to still be readable

Colour?

When choosing colours for your poster, using 2 -3 colours will give the best look. Too many colours make it look chaotic and unprofessional, but having no colour makes it boring and plain. But what about colour vision impairment – try Vischeck? http: //www. vischeck. com/visc heck/vischeck. Image. php

Font size? Title: 80 pt Authors: 54 pt Subheadings: 36 pt Body text: 24 pt Captions: 18 pt

Poster design o Eye-catching - good use of colour o Easy to read at a distance of 1 to 2 m o Minimise text, maximise meaningful graphics o Use logical/clear sequence

Poster content - General o o o Focused topic - decide on the take home message (conclusions) Design the poster round the take home message Choose data that are needed to make the desired points conclusively Decide which methods are key to understanding the data Select the background information that is essential to: – Understand the system – Understand the question that is being asked

Poster content Above all else, know your audience o Don’t baffle your audience thinking you are showing how clever you are o Is your audience – The general public? – Intelligent academics from across the University? – Specialists who work specifically in your area? o Being able to tell the general public about your research and therefore why you are doing it is important to achieve impact o

Poster Content - Introduction and References o o o Use bullet points Separate each bullet point with space Cut down factual content to minimum Illustrate the subject with a picture if possible Provide key references

Poster content - Methods o Methods should be presented in cartoon version rather than text if possible

Poster content - Results o o o Decide how the data can be presented most clearly with greatest visual clarity tables, figures, photographs Aim for the Table or Figure to be understandable with a minimum of explanation - annotate a picture or graph with simple labels - do not overload a figure legend. Avoid duplication between graphics and text Organise results by subheadings or subsections related to a question or conclusion

Presenting your poster in the conference session o Look friendly o Have your photo on your poster o Introduce yourself to anyone who looks interested o Be prepared with additional information and answers to background information o Provide A 4 sheet copy of your poster

Questions? Then two activities: - Sketch out your own poster - Judge other posters

Brainstorm about your poster o o o o Take home message Data/facts/interpretation to support take home message Method(s) to generate data/facts Background information/introduction Title Images Make a cartoon version of your poster

Share your ideas o Is the message clear? o Do you understand the technical terms? o Can you see why the work was done? o Does the idea interest you? o Does the conclusion seem to represent progress? o Do the proposed graphics help?

Are you planning to enter the next GS Annual Poster Conference? o Do you want to win prizes and go on to national poster conference events? o Check out what you think is good and bad about previous posters

Examples of Posters

Look at some posters from previous Graduate School Poster Conferences o http: //www. flickr. com/photos/70731382@N 04/sets/72157628148020865/ o http: //www. flickr. com/photos/70731382@N 04/sets/72157630343425552/

Judge posters from a previous GS annual poster conference o Judge on content – Best and worst o Judge on presentation – Best and worst

Judging criteria used at last UGS Poster Conference o This is an example of a judging criteria o Look at the different aspects of the grid o Style/content/presenter