Have you ever had your research abstract accepted for a poster presentation at a scientific meeting? How did you learn how to make your poster so that it was effective and clear? I never was officially taught how to make an effective poster and am thrilled to see a review article in Medical Teacher, which nicely lays out some of the key principles. It is a nice guide for those who are new to making posters (and even is a nice review for those who have made posters before).
Posters serve as an important visual tool for communication, teaching, and assessment. An effectively designed poster draws viewers to your poster, visually communicates your research findings, and engages the viewer in conversation. Remember that the poster should be designed as a stand-alone product because posters are often displayed all day in a conference hall. The presenter is only beside the poster for 1-3 hours of the day.The author summarizes the key points in making an effective poster, drawn from various "how-to" guides:
- The title should be short, large-font, and results-oriented to attract attention.
- Build visual elements to convey your message (photos, graphs, diagrams).
- Minimize the use of text.
- Use large, easy-to-read font. (I personally use a sans sarif font such as Verdana or Arial. Check out the following sentences.)
- Fonts make a huge difference in appeal. (Arial)
- Fonts make a huge difference in appeal. (Verdana)
- Fonts make a huge difference in appeal. (Times)
- Fonts make a huge difference in appeal. (Georgia)
- Use appropriate headers to organize and break your poster up into sections.
- Prepare a stack of summary handouts so that people can take with him.
Also interestingly one of the references points to an online 60-second poster evaluation checklist. It provides an assessment of the general appeal and visual layout of the poster. The basic criteria are:- Overall appearance
- Amount of white space (less is more!)
- Text-graphics balance
- Text size
- Organization and flow
- Author identification
- Research objective
- Main points
- Summary
Also in the references, there is an useful website by Hess, Tosney, and Liegel on "Creating Effective Poster Presentations: An Effective Poster". There are annotated examples of effective and not-so-effective posters.
Reference:
Hess GR, Tosney KW, Liegel LH. Creating effective poster presentations: AMEE Guide no. 40. Med Teach. 2009 Apr;31(4):319-21.