A poster is a visual presentation of information. A research poster is a visual presentation of your research (information) and should be designed as such – do not simply reproduce a written paper in poster format.
Academic posters are typically created for display at academic conferences and they should be understandable to readers/ viewers without verbal comment – someone might look at it when you are not there to explain.
A research poster is used to:
catch the reader’s attention - potentially useful contacts who are working in the same or related reserach area
tell them what researh question you are trying to answer
tell them what you found out - if you are at the first stages of your research, then what you expect to find out.
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Creating your poster
Plan on paper first: Let the technology serve the message, not dictate it.
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Use all the space at your disposal, but do not cram in the content – white space is an important part of the layout, and good use of it can make a poster elegant and arresting.
Use colour sparingly – limited use of a few colours is more striking than a ‘rainbow’ approach. Think about why you are using colour; it is especially useful for emphasis and differentiation.
Avoid colour combinations that clash (e.g. red on blue) or cause problems for people with colour-blindness (e.g. red and green in proximity). Use white or muted colour background (e.g. pastel shades)
The flow of information should be clear from the layout; if you have to use arrows to indicate the flow, the content could probably be arranged better.
Clearly label diagrams/drawings and provide references to them in the text where necessary.
Follow the conference guidelines, which may be quite specific about paper sizes, font sizes etc.The title text should be readable from 6 metres away – at least 48-point text. (Note that if you are creating your poster in A4 format, to be blown up to A1 format later, the final printed font size will be approximately 3 times the size you are working with.)
The body text should be readable from 2 metres away – at least 24-point text
Choose a clear font with large inner space (i.e. the space inside the loops of letters such as ‘o’, ‘d’, ‘p’). Good examples are Arial, Verdana, Georgia or Helvetica.
Serif or sans-serif text? Short answer: it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s legible. This short article by Alex Poole “Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?” (2006) still holds and punctures a few of the myths surrounding this subject.Keep the word count as low as possible.
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