Poster Presentations
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Context
• Academic:

short reports of
current research
• Industry:

trade fairs
• Education:

summaries of
particular topics

Aims
• Attract an audience
• Keep the audience
• Inform the audience
• Impress the audience
Attract an Audience

Colour scheme
• make effective use of colour
• but do check for legibility

Use of graphics
• make them large enough
• background graphic can be effective

Interesting title
• make subject of poster clear
Keep the audience

Content
• get the level right
• tell a coherent story
• put results in
context


explain motivation
explain significance
of results

Layout
• clear navigation
• legible font sizes

including graph axes
and legends!
• design layout and
colour scheme for
ease of legibility
Inform the Audience

Content
• get the level right!
• stress the important
points
• do not overwhelm
with detail…
• …but do back up
what you say

Layout
• should complement
content



stress important
points
present results
clearly
introduction and
conclusion
Impress the Audience

Content
• make clear that you
know what you’re
doing and why



be prepared for
questions
don’t include
material you don’t
understand
stress any new or
important findings

Layout
• look professional



no skew-whiff bits of
paper glued to
cardboard
no typos or spelling
mistakes
good quality
graphics
Design Issues

Colour scheme
• choose dark-on-light or light-on-dark



ensure good contrast between text and backgrounds
be careful when using patterned backgrounds
Layout
• divide material into blocks



but not too many blocks
try to avoid long stretches of uninterrupted text
make sure it’s clear what graphs represent
(title, axis labels, legend)
Navigation

Posters don’t automatically impose ordering
of material
• if order is important, make sure it is natural


English-speaking people will naturally work top to
bottom, left to right
therefore introductory material should be on top or at
left
• ensure graphics and text relate naturally

try to avoid need for arrows etc.
Example layouts
Introduction
Panel
1
Panel
2
Central image
Panel
3
Conclusion

Good posters are easier to recognise
than to describe
• lots of posters round department, by
academics and students
look at them
 decide which you like and which you don’t
 try to analyse reasons why you like/dislike
poster
 check with friends (if everyone likes a
particular poster, it’s doing something right)
