Learning from the Posters of Others A. You will need to find two poster images online (try a google image search for scientific poster). Paste the images below. Poster A: Poster B: B. Now Do These Two Things: 1. Watch ‘How to Make a Great Poster’ video on the scientific posters page of the canvas site. 2. Consider this list of some poster do's and don'ts: Too Many Words 1. One of the biggest mistakes is too many words. Aim for less than 500 words on your poster. 2. Include graphics instead of text where possible. 3. Whenever possible, use lists of sentences rather than blocks of text, highlighting on the key points. Various Visual Elements 1. The title should be easy to read from 20 feet away. The headings for the sections should be easy to read from 6 feet away. 2. Format the title in sentence case. 3. Make sure the spacing between words is not too awkward. 4. Make sure your graphics are legible to those with color deficiencies. The most common form is red-green color blindness. 5. Make text in figures and graphs big enough to read. 6. Make sure graphics are of high enough resolution. Presenting Results 1. Maintain space around text boxes and figures. 2. Choose the right graph formats to present your data. 3. Keep your graphs as simple as possible. Does it need that legend that excel automatically creates? Does in need the extra horizontal lines? 4. Provide some information about each figure or in each figure legend that makes the take some message clear. For example, "mice fed chocolate are happier than those fed broccoli," gives a take home message, while "happiness scores of mice fed alternative diets," does not give the take home message. Etc. 1. Format your references carefully. They should all follow the exact same format. They can be in very small text. 2. "Data" is plural. C. Now, Answer these questions: 1. What are four things that your focal posters do well? 1. Colors schemes that are bright/interesting and draw the eye (especially poster B) 2. Visual representation of methods/study design to simplify them for the viewer 3. Clear headers and horizontal layout – easy/logical to follow 4. Poster B has few blocks of texts; important points are bolded to stand out/make them easy to process 2. What are four things that your focal posters can do better? 1. I appreciate how much Poster B avoids text blocks, but I think that it actually needs a little more detail about the experiment 2. Poster A is the opposite; a few too many blocks of text, would be hard to read/focus on the whole thing 3. Poster A color scheme is attractive overall, but more highlighting/color around the results (not just headers and experimental design) could make them stand out 4. There are no results figures in poster A, and I think that the figure in poster B needs a little additional information about the significance of the figure 3. Considering these posters and the tips provided in the video and list, what is something that you learned that was new, or something that you really want to try as you make your own poster? I didn’t realize that visuals/making a poster draw the audience in could be such a big part of scientific poster presentations, and I’m interested in trying to make a more succinct/appealing poster instead of just trying to fit in as much information as possible!
