|
|
Know Your Audience
Who will be viewing your poster? What level should you present at? Err on the
side of too simplistic - you can always add more detail in person.
Tell The Whole Story
Your poster should be self-explanatory, but at the same time you want to
keep the number of words to a minimum. Try to incorporate each of the following
components in your poster:
- Motivation - Why should I be interested in what you are doing?
- Hypothesis - State clearly the specific problem that you are addressing.
- Methodology - What did you do?
- Results - Show (plots, figures, numbers) what you found.
- Conclusions - Explain the meaning of your results in relation to your hypothesis.
Keep It Simple
Avoid putting too much technical detail into the poster. You may be proud of
that 4th order partial differential equation that you solved, but it might scare
away the average person. Keep the number of points expressed in your poster to
a minimum - be happy if the viewer goes home with one solid idea from
your poster.
Make It Readable
Use large fonts! Don't make the viewer lean up to within 6 inches of your
poster. Large fonts also means fewer words (a good thing for posters). Use
the Dave Haase test: lay your poster out on the floor - can you read everything
from a standing postion? Also make sure the "flow" of the poster is obvious, i.e.,
where should I start reading? What should I look at next? You can use numbers
on pages, color coding, arrows, or just careful placement.
Also include a LARGE title with author names and affiliations.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
A poster is a visual presentation - take advantage of it. Keep the words to
an absolute minimum (don't be afraid to use bullets and phrases rather than complete
paragraphs). Pictures (graphs, schematic drawings, images, etc.) should include
a descriptive title that draws the viewer directly to the ONE important point. A
more complete caption should fully explain the picture. Graphs are far better than
tables of numbers or equations.
|
