Creating An Effective Scientific Poster Presentation
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Planning

This is the most important step, and perhaps the most difficult to master. Before compiling images, writing text, or doing anything, imagine your poster completed.

Contents of this Section

 

What is a poster presentation?

Effectively designed posters are a medium distinct in typography, layout, and style. The purpose of a poster is to present your research in the form of a story to an audience that is passing through. The presenter stands next to the poster and engages in one-one-one discussions with passersby during scheduled poster sessions at scientific meetings.

To view a variety of poster designs and styles, check out the Gallery of Highly Effective Posters from a recent undergraduate research symposium.

Design Tip

Posters are not simply journal articles displayed across a large surface area. Posters that try to present too much information, stray from the main point, or are beyond the audience's knowledge level, will fail to be effective. Most people will be too intimidated or rushed to even approach a poster that is overly complicated. Posters that convey their message from a distance are more likely to draw attention.

 

Define your audience

Effective communication starts with knowing who your audience is. At poster sessions there is intense competition for audience attention. In their first 3 seconds your audience will determine whether to stay and explore your content or leave. If they stay you have 30 seconds to secure their attention by conveying an overall understanding of your subject matter. Some posters target general audiences and therefore focus on the results and importance of the work. Other posters target specialists in the field. Experts in your field might expect to learn not only what the results are, but how they were achieved. Still other posters are intended for a mixture of these audiences.

Design Tip

The amount and type of detail you include in your poster should be influenced by your audience's knowledge level in mind. A presentation on steroid biosynthesis to biologists from a a range of different specialties will require far less detail than a presentation on the same topic to biochemists attending a conference on lipid metabolism. Ask yourself:

  • Familiarity:
    How familiar is my audience with the topic of my presentation?
  • Comprehension:
    Is my audience likely to understand the terms I'm using, or should I explain new terms?

Remember: it's as bad to talk over your audience's head as it is to talk down to your audience.

 

Distill your take-home message

Before you begin shuffling paragraphs, charts, graphs and photos, ask yourself this question: "If the viewer only carries away one idea, what do I want it to be?" Now write down your answer. This is the theme of your poster, the focal point. Everything you include on your poster should support that theme.

Design Tip

Select a statement, photograph or diagram that is sure to attract your audience's attention. This is your 3 second hit. Your focus item should be enlarged so that it will occupy at least 30% of the area of the finished poster. Remember that your audience will not approach you if it is not clear what your topic or theme is from a "safe distance" of 10 feet.

Draw a concept map

Now, spend five minutes hatching out your ideas. Take out a blank sheet of paper and write a word or phrase that describes your theme in the middle, Draw a shape around it. Add any sub-topics that come to mind, then link them in a logical order. Add ideas near each sub-topic, and link them together. List whatever comes into your head.

The goal is to create a road map that will take the viewer from start to finish. Remember, the goal of your poster is to tell viewers what you did, why you did it, and what you found out from doing it. Your concept map should include a statement of the problem investigated (or hypothesis), the methods used, results or findings, and a conclusion. If you are more literary than visual, write out an outline as if you were outlining a term paper.

Once you are satisfied with your content map or outline, you are ready to design your poster!

Consider any special requirements of the conference

Read the presenter's guidelines for the conference you will be attending. Determine the size of the space that will be provided for your poster and whether the conference has any regulations regarding minimum font and graphics sizes, title placement, poster number placement, etc.

Next Step: Design Your Poster
 

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The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.