Poster Presentations
Basics
1
Poster Presentation Basics
Poster presentation challenge 1:
Attracting and holding interest
!Your
poster!
Lonely
and sad
presenter..
2
Poster Presentation Basics
Poster presentation challenge 2:
Presenting at ACES
 How do you convey your work to smart
people who are not specialists in your
discipline?
3
Poster Presentation Basics
Poster presentations involve two things
 An effective poster
 The oral presentation you do standing by your poster
4
Poster Presentation Basics
Effective posters: What do I want a reader to
know when they leave my poster?
 A poster should convey the most crucial points of your work
 Main reasons you came to undertake your study (the “why question”)?
 What problem(s) did you investigate?
 State your problem or hypothesis explicitly and clearly?
 What did you find?
 What does the finding mean?
 Other (less critical matters, given less attention on the poster)
 Did you mention the most important elements of the methods you used?
 The less work an observer has to do to understand what
you want to convey the better.
 A poster should be an integrated, visual object that directs
and guides a reader’s attention.
5
Poster Presentation Basics
An effective poster is
 Focused: Focused on a single (ideally) message.
 Graphic: Lets graphs and images tell the story and uses text
sparingly.
 Ordered: Provides a well-ordered and obvious structure
that leads reader naturally to each section and from point to
point.
6
Poster Presentation Basics
An effective poster….
is testimony to your ability to resist temptation! You must
suppress the urge to add just a little more detail.
Neither your poster nor your presentation should
include anywhere near the amount of detail you
probably think it does. YOU MUST CUT ! BE
STRONG AND RUTHLESS
 Aim for about 800 words (excluding Abstract) on the poster itself
7
Poster Presentation Basics
From betterposters.blogspot.com
8
Poster Presentation Basics
A poster communicates visually
A poster is an efficient way to convey information that relies heavily
on visual objects
Photographs and illustrations
Graphs, figures and tables
 Convey the point to the reader quickly and efficiently
 Call attention to or emphasize key points
Text should support, explain and highlight information provided in
your visuals.
9
Poster Presentation Basics
Which conveys information more efficiently?
Nitrogen Cycle
The cycling of nitrogen between
abiotic and biotic systems is called
nitrogen cycle. The main source of
nitrogen is air which contain 79% N2.
In this process, the atmospheric
nitrogen by Rhizobium is fixed into
the soil by biological fixation and
ammonification of dead organisms,
animal faeces by bacteria such as
Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter replenish
nitrates in the soil. These nitrates are
absorbed by the plants and used in the
production of plant proteins, which
are consumed by animals and again
ammonification takes place after their
death. These nitrates in the soil are
denitrified by denitrifying bacteria
such as Pseudomonas and given back
into the atmosphere in the form of
molecular Nitrogen.
10
Poster Presentation Basics
 Provide a
succinct
description of
a complex
process
Visually
represent and
summarize key
elements of
your experiment
g ray
exposure
11
Nitrosomona
Mutation
2000% size
increase
200% increase in
crop yield
An effective poster is “naturally”
ordered
 Presents content in a sensible and obvious structure that
leads reader from section to section and point to point.
 Columinar format- reader can follow entire poster from left
to right
 DO NOT DEFY or REVERSE READER GRAVITY:
 Columns – read a column from top to bottom, and then move to the next
column to the right
 We don’t force the reader to move back into an area of a page that they’ve
passed through earlier
See also:
http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/agalvez/poster/poster_making/en
try.htm
12
Poster Presentation Basics
Example of a useable poster layout:
Use of “reader gravity” and visual balance .
13
Poster Presentation Basics
Visual Balance- 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
Poor balance: more text on
left, more images on right
14
Poster Presentation Basics
This is an example of a badly organized
poster.
15
Poster Presentation Basics
Common problems that make
posters ineffective
 Too much text
 Poor use of gravity and visual balance
 Objective(s) and main point(s) hard to find
 Poor organization
 Text too small
 Poor quality graphics: Too small, sloppy, difficult to
understand
 TypograPhical errors
 Verbal presentation unclear, unfocused, overdetailed, “read”
16
Poster Presentation Basics
Presenting a Poster
 Prepare a 3-5 minute verbal overview of your poster.
 It should be comprehensible to someone who is not
knowledgeable about your type of work.
 Minimize jargon
 Stick to the point. Avoid wandering off into small details or
tangential information.
 Practice giving the overview!
 Have friends and advisor listen to and critique it.
 Do they understand problem and its significance?
17
Poster Presentation Basics
Your verbal overview should contain key ideas that
make your work significant
 Give the critical reason(s)/justification(s) for investigating your




18
problem and state your research hypothesis(es) or question(s)
explicitly and clearly
Mention key methods—those critical for understanding
significance of your data
Highlight key data and findings –those that are the basis of your
conclusions
State your conclusions about the meaning of your key data and
findings
Explain why someone should care about your findings
(significance)
Poster Presentation Basics
The cure for what ails you
Try to summarize your work in 30 seconds, using words that real
people use. Imagine you’re in an elevator with the President:You
have no more than 30 seconds to explain what you do and why you
do ….go!
 This is your central message and all the rest of the poster should
illuminate it.
 Do this exercise with each section:You have 3 minutes to go through
Introduction
Method
Results
Conclusions
This exercise will force you to focus on the most relevant facts in each
section that are needed to understand your central messages (what you
did, why you did it, what you found and what it all means)




19
Poster Presentation Basics
ACES Poster Judging Rubric
(handout and online)
 Use the rubric to guide and assess the quality your preparation
 There are 10 judgment categories, 6 relate to structure and style and
4 related to content
Structure and Style
Accessible?
Organized?
Space used well?
Clear/error free text?
Confidently discussed?
Engaging?
20
Poster Presentation Basics
Content
Central issue stated?
Evidence related to claims?
Conclusions and implications?
Importance conveyed?
Questions to ask yourself (and other people)
to assure your poster is successful
 Is the poster logically organized, intuitively navigable, visually
attractive?
 Is text clearly written and error free?
 Central issue clearly identified?
 Does it present a clear statement of the hypothesis or
research question and the background leading to it?
 Are the data presented clearly and evaluated and connected to the
hypothesis and conclusions appropriately?
 Are your conclusions clearly stated?
 Do the data and analyses justify your conclusions?
 Do you make the significance of your work clear to even nonexperts?
 Is your verbal presentation of the poster clear, succinct and
delivered with confidence?
21
Poster Presentation Basics
Examples of common poster sizes that fit
into a 4 X 8 space
As you can see in the above diagram, you have many poster size
options.
http://www.posterpresentations.com/html/presentation_size_
options.html
22
Poster Presentation Basics
Choice of size partly depends on the
amount of material you plan to present
Text pages in MS
Word
3-5
Pictures
Tables/Graphs
1-4
0,1,2,3
5-10
1-5
0,1,2,3
6-15
3-6
2,3,4,5
http://www.posterpresentations.com/html/pr
esentation_size_options.html
23
Poster Presentation Basics
Suggested
poster sizes
48x36, 36x60
48x36, 36x60,
42x63
36x72, 48x48,
48x72
The Nine Elements of a Poster
 Title and affiliation information
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Methods and materials
 Results
 Summary (Discussion or Conclusions)
 Citations
 Acknowledgements (optional)
 Further information (optional)
24
Poster Presentation Basics
This is a Microsoft PowerPoint
template that has column widths
and font sizes optimized for
printing a 36 x 56” (length x
width) poster that I’ve adapted
from Purrington, CB 2006
www.swathmore.edu/NatSci/cp
urrin1/posteradvice.htm so that
it meets ACES requirements.—
just replace the “tips” and “blah,
blah, blah” repeat motifs with
actual content, if you have it.
Use a non-serif font for your title
and section headings.
This is a header. If
you make the font size
large, and then add
bolding…there is no
need to also apply
underlining or
italicization. Adding
multiple kinds of styles,
needlessly, just marks
you as a poster novice.
Adjust color as you see
fit.
The first sentence of
the first paragraph
does not need to be
indented. The next
paragraphs in the
section should be
indented.
Title clearly identifies the underlying issue or question
Format in “sentence
case.” This means only the
“t” in “title” gets capitalized.
Maintain a good amount of space between your
columns. Although you could squeeze them
right up against each other, the poster’s
aesthetics would suffer. So when your mentor
says to do it, just nod your head as if you’re
listening.
Author Name, Author Name, Author Name, etc., Faculty Member Name, Advisor
Department of X, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019
Abstract
This is a brief summary of the key
elements of the poster. It should provide
a brief rationale for the work, and a brief
description of findings and conclusions.
Write this carefully so the main point of
your presentation is clear. Viewers often
just read the Abstract and the
Conclusion to get a sense of whether
they want to spend more time with your
poster
Introduction
Be brief. State your major idea, hypothesis or claim clearly
with as little qualification as possible.
Provide the minimum of background information needed
by a reader to understand why you did what you did. It is
tempting to put too much in this section. Just provide the
main points that were background/reason/motivation for the
undertaking the work. These points should set the stage for
the reader to understand the approach you took and the
significance of your findings. State your central claim, main
point clearly and with as little qualification as you can. A
clear statement of your hypothesis should be found here.
Figure 1. Photograph or drawing of
organism, chemical structure, or whatever.
Don’t use graphics from the web (they look
terrible when printed).
Materials and methods
Be brief, and opt for photographs or drawings whenever
possible to illustrate organism, protocol, or experimental
design. People commonly put too much information in this
section and no one reads it. I find it useful to think of this as
a summary of materials and methods used in the work that
only mentions the most important details. Other details can
be snuck into Figure captions—which is useful to do if the
data take on their significance because of a particular
methodological point—or explained if the reader wants
more information.
I sure
wish
I’d
prese
nted
my
theor
y
with
a
poste
r
befor
eI
wrote
my
book.
Note unhappy
expression
Results
The overall layout for this section should be modified from
this template to best show off your graphs and other resultrelated illustrations. You might want a single, large column
to accommodate a big map, or perhaps you could arrange 6
figures in a circle in the center of the poster: do whatever it
takes to make your results graphically clear. Be sure to
make your graphs and tables big enough to read from 4-6
feet away.
Paragraph format is fine, but sometimes a simple list of
“bullet” points can communicate results more effectively:
• Rats treated with …. committed fewer errors than
untreated controls (Fig. 3a) (t= 12.36, df = 21, p
< .01)
• Control rats completed maze faster, on average,
than rats treated with …(Fig. 3b) (t = 9.84, df =
21, p = 0.032)
• Tested one month after initial training, rats
previously treated with …. retained the learned
solution to the maze better than controls (Fig. 3c)
(t = whatever)
if possible
(a)
(b)
(c)
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images
Figure 3. Make sure legends have enough detail to explain to the
viewer what the results are, but don’t go on and on. You can put
explanatory text, add arrows, circles, etc., directly on your graph to
guide a reader’s attention and understanding of crucial “take home”
points. Note that for posters it is good to put some “Materials and
methods” information within the figure legends or onto the figures
themselves—it allows the M&m section to be shorter, and gives
viewer a sense of the experiment(s) even if they have skipped
directly to figures. Don’t be tempted to reduce font size in figure
legends, axes labels, etc.—your viewers are probably most
interested in reading your figures and legends! Panel (a) shows
rats previously treated with drug x for six consecutive days learned
the maze more quickly than controls; Panel (b) shows treated rats
ran more slowly. Finally, Panel (c) shows the drug treatment
improved long-term retention of the maze task.
Orient your label horizontally
if at all possible. Graphs are
much easier to read when
this is done.
Rats with brains navigated mazes
faster
Brainectomized
Time (s)
Summary and conclusions
This section should be written with extreme care to assure
that the main points made by your poster are summarized
concisely. Again, people often read this section and the
Abstract to decide whether they want to spend more time
Control (brain intact)
with your poster.
Maze difficulty index
Figure 4. Avoid keys that force readers to labor through
complicated graphs: just label all the lines (or bars) and then
delete the silly key altogether (as above). The above figure would
also be greatly improved if I had the ability to draw mini rats with
and without brains. I would then put these really cute little
illustrations next to the lines they represent.
Conclusions should not be mere
reminders of your results. Instead, you want to guide the
reader through what you have concluded from the results.
What is the broader significance? Would anyone be mildly
surprised? Why should anyone care? This section should
restate the reasons, issues that motivated your study that
you described in your Introduction.. A good conclusion will
always refer to the literature on the topic -- how does your
research add to what is already published on the topic?
Be sure to separate
figures from other figures by generous use of white space.
When figures are too cramped, viewers get confused about
which figures to read first and which legend goes with
which figure.
Figures are preferred
but tables are sometimes unavoidable. A table looks best
when it is first composed within Microsoft Word, then
“Inserted” as an “Object.” If you can add small drawings
or icons to your tables, do so!
Citation styles vary across
disciplines so follow the
citation conventions of your
discipline exactly.
Literature cited
If you type your references in this box, they will be automatically
formatted for proper spacing along the left margin. If you don’t know
the format for citing the relevant work, find a style guide or look at
the format of references in a major journal in your field.
Acknowledgments
Put a figure here
that explores a
statistical result
Abutting these last sections can save you a
little space, and subtly indicates to viewers that
the contents are not as important to read.
We thank X for technical support, note that people’s titles are omitted.
Funding for this project was provided by .........
This is the gene
of interest!
Figure 5. You can use connector lines and arrows to visually guide
viewers through your results. Adding emphasis this way is much,
much better than making the point with words in the text section.
These lines can help viewers read your poster even when you’re not
present.
Figure 2. Illustration of important piece of equipment, or
perhaps a flow chart summarizing experimental design.
Scanned, hand-drawn illustrations are usually preferable to
computer-generated ones.
Make sure the edges of your columns are aligned with
adjacent columns. Display gridlines on screen found in
View. Don’t trust your eyes: select the columns, then
“Align” with the proper tool found under Draw –AlignDistribute.
For further information
Please contact email@blahcollege.edu. More information on this and
related projects can be obtained at (give the URL for general laboratory
web site). A link to an online, PDF-version of the poster is nice, too.
If you just must include a pretentious logo,
hide it down here.
Title clearly identifies the underlying issue or question
Format in “sentence case.”
This means only the “t” in
“title” gets capitalized.
Author Name, Author Name, Author Name, etc., Faculty Member Name, Advisor
Department of X, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019
This is a
header. If you
make the font
size large, and
then add
bolding…there
is no need to
also apply
underlining or
italicization.
Adjust color as
you see fit.
Abstract
This is a brief summary of the key elements of the
poster. It should provide a brief rationale for the work,
and a brief description of findings and conclusions. Write
this carefully so the main point of your presentation is
clear. Viewers often just read the Abstract and the
Conclusion to get a sense of whether they want to spend
more time with your poster
The first
sentence of the
first paragraph
does not need
to be indented.
The next
paragraphs in
the section
should be
indented.
Introduction
Be brief. State your major idea, hypothesis or claim clearly with as
little qualification as possible. The first paragraph needs to grab the
reader’s attention. Why should they want to spend time at your
poster. Your first paragraph should “hook” them.
Provide the minimum of background information needed by a
reader to understand why you did what you did. It is tempting to put
too much in this section. Just provide the main points that were the
background/reason/motivation for the undertaking the work. These
points should set the stage for the reader to understand the approach
you took and the significance of your findings. State your central
claim or main point clearly and with as little qualification as you can.
A clear statement of your hypothesis should be found here.
Figure 1. Photograph or drawing of organism,
chemical structure, or whatever
Materials and methods
Be brief, and opt for photographs or drawings whenever possible to illustrate organism,
protocol, or experimental design. People commonly put too much information in this
section and no one reads it. I find it useful to think of this as a summary of materials and
methods used in the work that only mentions the most important details. Other details
can be snuck into Figure captions—which is useful to do if the data take on their
significance because of a particular methodological point—or explained if the reader
wants more information.
Note unhappy
expression
Figure 2. Illustration of important piece of equipment, or perhaps a flow chart
summarizing experimental design..
A visual representation of the
experimental protocol and
organism(s) in an experiment
g ray
exposure
30
Induced
mutation in
Nitrosomona
examined soil
nitrogen and
crop yield
Results
Do whatever it takes to make your results graphically clear. Be sure to
make your graphs and tables big enough to read from 4-6 feet away.
Paragraph format is fine, but sometimes a simple list of “bullet” points
can communicate results more effectively:
•Rats treated with …. committed fewer errors than untreated controls
(Fig. 3a) (t= 12.36, df = 21, p < .01)
•Control rats completed maze faster, on average, than rats treated with
…(Fig. 3b) (t = 9.84, df = 21, p = 0.032)
•Tested one month after initial training, rats previously treated with ….
retained the learned solution to the maze better than controls (Fig. 3c)
(t = whatever)
(a)
(b)
(c)
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid 3D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid 3D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Rats with brains navigated
mazes faster
Control (brain
intact)
Speed
Brainectomized
Maze difficulty index
Figure 4. Avoid keys that force readers to labor through
complicated graphs: just label all the lines (or bars) and
then delete the key altogether (as above). The above
figure would also be greatly improved if I had the
ability to draw mini rats with and without brains. I
would then put these really cute little illustrations next
to the lines they represent.
Orient your Y axis label horizontally if
at all possible. Graphs are much
easier to read when this is done.
Separate figures from other figures
by generous use of white space.
When figures are too cramped,
viewers get confused about which
figures to read first and which
legend goes with which figure.
Graphs and Tables
 Graphs, tables, charts, must be legible from a distance of
about 4-5 feet
 Chose the format that conveys the information most easily to
a reader (most graphs are easier to understand than most
tables…but there are situations where a table is the best
choice—multiple factors, large matrix of data)
 When using line graphs, label the lines directly and avoid
using keys to identify conditions where ever possible.
33
Poster Presentation Basics
Graphs– Legends and Captions
 Should describe the results displayed in the graphic. Keep it
short, emphasizing your most important findings
 Example:
Fig. 1. Changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in cat
owners and non-owners during a exposure to photographs of cats
(Panel A) mice (Panel B) and dogs (Panel C). None of the three
types of pictures affected systolic blood pressure. Diastolic
pressure was reduced while participants observed cat pictures, but
not when they viewed pictures of mice or dogs
34
Poster Presentation Basics
Figures are preferred, but tables are sometimes
unavoidable. A table looks best when it is first
composed within Microsoft Word, then
“Inserted” as an “Object.” If you can add small
drawings or icons to your tables, do so!
Put a figure
here that
explores a
statistical
result
Title clearly identifies the underlying issue or question
Author Name, Author Name, Author Name, etc., Faculty Member Name, Advisor
Department of X, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019
Abstract
This is a brief summary of the key
elements of the poster. It should provide
a brief rationale for the work, and a brief
description of findings and conclusions.
Write this carefully so the main point of
your presentation is clear. Viewers often
just read the Abstract and the
Conclusion to get a sense of whether
they want to spend more time with your
poster
Introduction
Results
The overall layout for this section should be modified from
this template to best show off your graphs and other resultrelated illustrations. You might want a single, large column
to accommodate a big map, or perhaps you could arrange 6
figures in a circle in the center of the poster: do whatever it
takes to make your results graphically clear. Be sure to
make your graphs and tables big enough to read from 4-6
feet away.
Paragraph format is fine, but sometimes a simple list of
“bullet” points can communicate results more effectively:
Be brief. State your major idea, hypothesis or claim clearly
with as little qualification as possible.
Provide the minimum of background information needed
by a reader to understand why you did what you did. It is
tempting to put too much in this section. Just provide the
main points that were background/reason/motivation for the
undertaking the work. These points should set the stage for
the reader to understand the approach you took and the
significance of your findings. State your central claim, main
point clearly and with as little qualification as you can. A
clear statement of your hypothesis should be found here.
• Rats treated with …. committed fewer errors than
untreated controls (Fig. 3a) (t= 12.36, df = 21, p
< .01)
• Control rats completed maze faster, on average,
than rats treated with …(Fig. 3b) (t = 9.84, df =
21, p = 0.032)
• Tested one month after initial training, rats
previously treated with …. retained the learned
solution to the maze better than controls (Fig. 3c)
(t = whatever)
Figure 1. Photograph or drawing of
organism, chemical structure, or whatever.
Don’t use graphics from the web (they look
terrible when printed).
Materials and methods
Be brief, and opt for photographs or drawings whenever
possible to illustrate organism, protocol, or experimental
design. People commonly put too much information in this
section and no one reads it. I find it useful to think of this as
a summary of materials and methods used in the work that
only mentions the most important details. Other details can
be snuck into Figure captions—which is useful to do if the
data take on their significance because of a particular
methodological point—or explained if the reader wants
more information.
I sure
wish
I’d
prese
nted
my
theor
y
with
a
poste
r
befor
eI
wrote
my
book.
Note unhappy
expression
Figure 2. Illustration of important piece of equipment, or
perhaps a flow chart summarizing experimental design.
Scanned, hand-drawn illustrations are usually preferable to
computer-generated ones.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible.
Avoid 3-D
images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Keep graphs
as simple as
possible.
Avoid 3-D
images if
possible
Figure 3. Make sure legends have enough detail to explain to the
viewer what the results are, but don’t go on and on. You can put
explanatory text, add arrows, circles, etc., directly on your graph to
guide a reader’s attention and understanding of crucial “take home”
points. Note that for posters it is good to put some “Materials and
methods” information within the figure legends or onto the figures
themselves—it allows the M&m section to be shorter, and gives
viewer a sense of the experiment(s) even if they have skipped
directly to figures. Don’t be tempted to reduce font size in figure
legends, axes labels, etc.—your viewers are probably most
interested in reading your figures and legends! Panel (a) shows
rats previously treated with drug x for six consecutive days learned
the maze more quickly than controls; Panel (b) shows treated rats
ran more slowly. Finally, Panel (c) shows the drug treatment
improved long-term retention of the maze task.
Make sure the edges of your
columns in the main text are
aligned with adjacent columns.
Display gridlines on screen found in
View. Don’t trust your eyes: select
the columns, then “Align” with the
proper tool found under Draw –
Align-Distribute.
Maintain a good amount of “white”
space between your columns.
Acknowledgments
Although you could squeeze them
right up against each other, the
poster’s aesthetics would suffer
and it will be more difficult for a
viewer to work through.
We thank X for technical support, note that people’s titles are omitted.
Funding for this project was provided by .........
Summary/ Conclusions
 This section must be written with great care and attention.
 This section and your Abstract are usually the first things a
person visiting your poster will read… and maybe the last
things.
 What was your hypothesis/research question? What did you
find? What do your findings say about your
hypothesis/research question?
 Do not stop with the above.You must note why are your
findings important. Why should anyone care about your
findings? What/how do they contribute to the field? What
issues do your findings resolve? What issues do they raise?
37
Poster Presentation Basics
Summary/ Conclusions Continued
Write this section in prose or simple sentences with bullets to make your
points stand out.
This project
 Is based on…[restate its critical feature(s) leading to your work]
 It led to the a hypothesis that makes the unique prediction that X will cause a decrease in Y (or
indicates no one has explored the relationship between X and Y in the manner in which you did)
 We found … X decreased Y under…
 Findings support/don’t support the research hypothesis, succeed/fail to answer research
question,.
This summarizes the why you did the work issue and what you found, but what do you
conclude?
 Our data shed new light, are significant, unique, important, because they add to current
literature, debates etc, by resolving, clarifying, explaining, adding unexpected, novel facts.
…Our data are the first to show X decreases Y activity. Only Critical Hot Theory predicts this
 They have broad implications that generalize to matters not directly studied. …The cure for
cancer may be at hand… May lead to a new approach to treatments that repair neural
damage…
38
Poster Presentation Basics
This is a Microsoft PowerPoint
template that has column widths
and font sizes optimized for
printing a 36 x 56” (length x
width) poster that I’ve adapted
from Purrington, CB 2006
www.swathmore.edu/NatSci/cp
urrin1/posteradvice.htm so that
it meets ACES requirements.—
just replace the “tips” and “blah,
blah, blah” repeat motifs with
actual content, if you have it.
Use a non-serif font for your title
and section headings.
This is a header. If
you make the font size
large, and then add
bolding…there is no
need to also apply
underlining or
italicization. Adding
multiple kinds of styles,
needlessly, just marks
you as a poster novice.
Adjust color as you see
fit.
The first sentence of
the first paragraph
does not need to be
indented. The next
paragraphs in the
section should be
indented.
Title that hints at the underlying issue or question
Format in “sentence
case.” This means only the
“t” in “title” gets capitalized.
Maintain a good amount of space between your
columns. Although you could squeeze them
right up against each other, the poster’s
aesthetics would suffer. So when your mentor
says to do it, just nod your head as if you’re
listening.
Author Name, Author Name, Author Name, etc., Faculty Member Name, Advisor
Department of X, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019
Abstract
This is a brief summary of the key
elements of the poster. It should provide
a brief rationale for the work, and a brief
description of findings and conclusions.
Write this carefully so the main point of
your presentation is clear. Viewers often
just read the Abstract and the
Conclusion to get a sense of whether
they want to spend more time with your
poster
Introduction
Be brief. State your major idea, hypothesis or claim clearly
with as little qualification as possible.
Provide the minimum of background information needed
by a reader to understand why you did what you did. It is
tempting to put too much in this section. Just provide the
main points that were background/reason/motivation for the
undertaking the work. These points should set the stage for
the reader to understand the approach you took and the
significance of your findings. State your central claim, main
point clearly and with as little qualification as you can. A
clear statement of your hypothesis should be found here.
Figure 1. Photograph or drawing of
organism, chemical structure, or whatever.
Don’t use graphics from the web (they look
terrible when printed).
Materials and methods
Be brief, and opt for photographs or drawings whenever
possible to illustrate organism, protocol, or experimental
design. People commonly put too much information in this
section and no one reads it. I find it useful to think of this as
a summary of materials and methods used in the work that
only mentions the most important details. Other details can
be snuck into Figure captions—which is useful to do if the
data take on their significance because of a particular
methodological point—or explained if the reader wants
more information.
I sure
wish
I’d
prese
nted
my
theor
y
with
a
poste
r
befor
eI
wrote
my
book.
Note unhappy
expression
Results
The overall layout for this section should be modified from
this template to best show off your graphs and other resultrelated illustrations. You might want a single, large column
to accommodate a big map, or perhaps you could arrange 6
figures in a circle in the center of the poster: do whatever it
takes to make your results graphically clear. Be sure to
make your graphs and tables big enough to read from 4-6
feet away.
Paragraph format is fine, but sometimes a simple list of
“bullet” points can communicate results more effectively:
• Rats treated with …. committed fewer errors than
untreated controls (Fig. 3a) (t= 12.36, df = 21, p
< .01)
• Control rats completed maze faster, on average,
than rats treated with …(Fig. 3b) (t = 9.84, df =
21, p = 0.032)
• Tested one month after initial training, rats
previously treated with …. retained the learned
solution to the maze better than controls (Fig. 3c)
(t = whatever)
if possible
(a)
(b)
(c)
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images if
possible
Keep graphs as
simple as
possible. Avoid
3-D images
Figure 3. Make sure legends have enough detail to explain to the
viewer what the results are, but don’t go on and on. You can put
explanatory text, add arrows, circles, etc., directly on your graph to
guide a reader’s attention and understanding of crucial “take home”
points. Note that for posters it is good to put some “Materials and
methods” information within the figure legends or onto the figures
themselves—it allows the M&m section to be shorter, and gives
viewer a sense of the experiment(s) even if they have skipped
directly to figures. Don’t be tempted to reduce font size in figure
legends, axes labels, etc.—your viewers are probably most
interested in reading your figures and legends! Panel (a) shows
rats previously treated with drug x for six consecutive days learned
the maze more quickly than controls; Panel (b) shows treated rats
ran more slowly. Finally, Panel (c) shows the drug treatment
improved long-term retention of the maze task.
Orient your label horizontally
if at all possible. Graphs are
much easier to read when
this is done.
Rats with brains navigated mazes
faster
Brainectomized
Time (s)
Summary and conclusions
This section should be written with extreme care to assure
that the main points made by your poster are summarized
concisely. Again, people often read this section and the
Abstract to decide whether they want to spend more time
Control (brain intact)
with your poster.
Maze difficulty index
Figure 4. Avoid keys that force readers to labor through
complicated graphs: just label all the lines (or bars) and then
delete the silly key altogether (as above). The above figure would
also be greatly improved if I had the ability to draw mini rats with
and without brains. I would then put these really cute little
illustrations next to the lines they represent.
Conclusions should not be mere
reminders of your results. Instead, you want to guide the
reader through what you have concluded from the results.
What is the broader significance? Would anyone be mildly
surprised? Why should anyone care? This section should
restate the reasons, issues that motivated your study that
you described in your Introduction.. A good conclusion will
always refer to the literature on the topic -- how does your
research add to what is already published on the topic?
Be sure to separate
figures from other figures by generous use of white space.
When figures are too cramped, viewers get confused about
which figures to read first and which legend goes with
which figure.
Figures are preferred
but tables are sometimes unavoidable. A table looks best
when it is first composed within Microsoft Word, then
“Inserted” as an “Object.” If you can add small drawings
or icons to your tables, do so!
Citation styles vary across
disciplines so follow the
citation conventions of your
discipline exactly.
Literature cited
If you type your references in this box, they will be automatically
formatted for proper spacing along the left margin. If you don’t know
the format for citing the relevant work, find a style guide or look at
the format of references in a major journal in your field.
Acknowledgments
Put a figure here
that explores a
statistical result
Abutting these last sections can save you a
little space, and subtly indicates to viewers that
the contents are not as important to read.
We thank X for technical support, note that people’s titles are omitted.
Funding for this project was provided by .........
This is the gene
of interest!
Figure 5. You can use connector lines and arrows to visually guide
viewers through your results. Adding emphasis this way is much,
much better than making the point with words in the text section.
These lines can help viewers read your poster even when you’re not
present.
Figure 2. Illustration of important piece of equipment, or
perhaps a flow chart summarizing experimental design.
Scanned, hand-drawn illustrations are usually preferable to
computer-generated ones.
Make sure the edges of your columns are aligned with
adjacent columns. Display gridlines on screen found in
View. Don’t trust your eyes: select the columns, then
“Align” with the proper tool found under Draw –AlignDistribute.
For further information
Please contact email@blahcollege.edu. More information on this and
related projects can be obtained at (give the URL for general laboratory
web site). A link to an online, PDF-version of the poster is nice, too.
If you just must include a pretentious logo,
hide it down here.
Abutting these last sections can save you a little space and subtly
indicates to viewers that the contents are not as important to read.
Literature cited
If you type your references in this box, they will be
automatically formatted for proper spacing along the left
margin. If you don’t know the format for citing the relevant
work, find a style guide or look at the format of references
in a major journal in your field.
Acknowledgments
We thank X for technical support, note that people’s titles
are omitted. Funding for this project was provided by .........
For further information
Please contact email@blahcollege.edu. More information
on this and related projects can be obtained at (give the URL
for general laboratory web site). A link to an online, PDFversion of the poster is nice, too.
Citation
styles vary
across
disciplines so
follow the
citation
conventions
of your
discipline
exactly.
Format Suggestions for Creating a
Legible Poster
 USE SANS SERIF fonts (Helvetica and Arial are examples ) for Title and section headings
 This is Helvetica
 This is Arial
 This is Tahoma
 Title: Bold type, sentence style, 80 point
 Authors: Bold type, 60 point
 Section headings: 44 point minimum Text under headings: 24 point minimum – use SERIF fonts for text (e.g. Times New






41
Roman, Palatino Linotype, Georgia
Arrange text in small blocks, about 10 sentences
Single or 1.5 space between lines of text
A line of text should be about 40 characters/11 words long
Left justify text
Do not indent first word in the first paragraph under a section heading. Indent as you
normally would for paragraphs in remaining paragraphs in that section.
Avoid blocks of text when possible.
Poster Presentation Basics
42
Poster Presentation Basics
From betterposters.blogspot.com
Choice of font,Comic Sans- low
readability
43
Poster Presentation Basics
From betterposters.blogspot.com
Resources
Template for the poster used to illustrate
elements of a poster in this presentation:
http://grad.uta.edu/Events/ACES/postertemplate.ppt
General information about poster design:
http://betterposters.blogspot.com/
http://www.kmeverson.org/academic-poster-design.html
http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2012/04/conferenceposters/
44
Poster Presentation Basics
Designing Posters for Specific
Disciplines
 Neuroscience Poster Design
 Presenting Conference Papers and Posters in the
Humanities (Texas Tech University)
 Developing Poster Presentations in the Social
Sciences (George Mason University)
 Poster Presentations in the Natural Sciences (George Mason
University)
45
Poster Presentation Basics
Poster Design Software Guides
Using PowerPoint to design posters
 Designing Effective Posters Using Powerpoint 2010 for Windows (UNC





Health Sciences Library)
Designing Effective Posters Using Powerpoint 2011 for Macintosh (UNCHealth Sciences Library)
Creating Large Format Posters Using PowerPoint (Wake Forest University)
Creating a Poster in Microsoft PowerPoint (Rice University)
Creating a Poster in PowerPoint (University of Washington)
Creating Posters with PowerPoint (Northwestern University)
Creating a Large Format Posters using PowerPoint (Wake Forest University)
Using InDesign or Illustrator to design posters
 Designing Effective Posters Using InDesign (UNC-Health Sciences Library)
 Designing a Poster with Adobe Illustrator (Whitman College)
46
Poster Presentation Basics
Questions?
47
Poster Presentation Basics