Notes

Outline

Introduction to poster presentations Mary L. Nucci PhD Student, SCILS

What is a poster? A visual presentation serving as a Source of information Conversation starter Advertisement of your work Summary of your work

An effective poster  Delivers a clear message  Is highly visual  Is read easily from 1-2 meters away

The essentials of the poster A poster shows what was done Use diagrams, arrows, and other strategies to direct the visual attention of the viewer Posters address one central question Use discussion time to expand Provide an explicit take-home message

Poster problems Many posters suffer from easy-to-fix problems that make them ineffective Objective(s) and main point(s) hard to find Text too small Poor graphics Poor organization

It all starts with an idea You must turn that idea into a succinct message and support it with a combination of images and short blocks of text

Know your message What is the one thing you want your audience to learn? Focus on your message throughout the poster If it doesn't reinforce your message, leave it out

The poster abstract The abstract is what gets your poster accepted You can think of the poster as an illustrated abstract

Creating your poster Carefully plan, draft, edit, and construct your poster What size is your poster? How much money can you spend? Who is your audience?

Formatting your poster Title Title of the project, the people involved in the work and their affiliation Summary What you have set out to do, how you did it, the key findings and the main results Introduction The problem you are trying to solve, project aims and objectives

Formatting continued Methodology Basics of the techniques that you are using Results Illustrative examples of the main results of the work Conclusion Main findings Further work Recommendations about future research

Formatting Your poster should tell a story about what you have done and achieved Arrange the sections to follow the storyline—if helpful provide arrows to direct attention to the sequence of the presentation

Formatting: layout Headings help readers find key sections Balance the placement of text and graphics Use white space creatively to define flow of information Don't fight "reader gravity" that pulls eye from top to bottom, left to right

Text Minimize text  Keep text elements to 50 words or less Use phrases rather than full sentences Use an active voice Avoid jargon

Text: font and size Serif (Times Roman) or san serif (Tahoma)? Text should be large At least 36 point for title panels; 24 point for text The text should be large enough to be read easily from at least 6 feet away

And more text Double-space, left-justification Be consistent. Choose one font and then use it throughout the poster Add emphasis by using boldface, underlining, or color; italics are difficult to read

The title The title letters should be 1.5-2 inches tall Authors names may be printed smaller Affiliations can be even smaller Titles (eg, PhD) usually left out Poster session number should be printed separately Typically placed on top of the title banner

Text tip 1 WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS LINE WHERE ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE IN UPPER CASE? What do you think of this line, where only the first character of the first word is in upper case?

Text tip 2 Check your spelling—and not just with spell-checker!

Text tip 3 Attempt to fit blocks of text onto a single page Simplifies cutting and pasting when you assemble the poster (that is, if you are doing a cut and paste poster)

Graphics Graphics communicate relationships quickly Graphics should be simple and clean 2-D line graphs, bar charts, pie charts Avoid 3-D graphs unless displaying 3-D data Use photos that help deliver your message Avoid clip art

More graphics The success of a poster directly relates to the clarity of the illustrations and tables Self-explanatory graphics A minimal amount of text materials should supplement the graphic materials Use regions of empty space between poster elements to differentiate and accentuate these elements

Graphics: equations Should be kept to a minimum Present only the necessary and important equations Should be accompanied by nomenclature to explain the significance of each variable

Color Light color background and dark letters for contrast Avoid dark background with light letters Stick to a theme of 2-3 colors Overly bright colors attract attention, but tough on the eyes Consider people who have problems differentiating colors--one of the most common is an inability to tell green from red

More color Use related colors to unify your poster Muted colors for background, intense colors as borders or emphasis Color can enhance the hues or contrast of photographs Use a light background with darker photos; a dark background with lighter photos Use a neutral background to emphasize color, a white background to reduce the impact of colored photos

Color tip Most poster sessions are held in halls lit with harsh fluorescent light. If exact colors are important to the data, balance those colors for use with fluorescent lighting Colors will be intensified--bright (saturated) colors may become unpleasant to view

Constructing your poster Dependent on the poster arrangements of the conference

Presenting your poster Be at the meeting site ahead of time Bring materials to hang your poster Have a plan for what you'll do at the meeting Have a 3-5 minute presentation prepared Don't read the poster--give the big picture, explain why the problem is important, and use the graphics to illustrate and support your key points

More presenting your poster Bring along written documentation for viewers to take away Abstract Print out of poster Business cards

Even more presenting your poster Consider leaving a pen and pad inviting comments from viewers Be at your poster during your assigned presentation time

Software PowerPoint Adobe Illustrator MicroSoft Excel create graphics and export them for PowerPoint Adobe Photoshop Image manipulation

Case study

Slide 33

Reviewer 1 comments the graphs are a bit busy (especially the one on the bottom right) I am not sure what IBA or NAA are the legends on the graphs are very small I like the colors, but the black seems harsh, but I understand that the black background provides a nice contrast to the bright lines in the graphs the pictures and the title area are pleasing to the eye title could be more grabbing I am not sure what auxin is well balanced overall: pleasing, but a few color adjustments or graph simplifications would make it even nicer

Reviewer 2 comments I suggest sticking with a white background and using dark colors for the lines and bars. On the bar graph, I suggest ditching the 3D effect and just going with simple 2D bars -- the 3D doesn't add any information, just noise. Same with grid lines -- remove them from all the graphs -- they add no information and just make them look busy. Increase the font size on all graph elements -- you should be able to read them comfortably when the poster is printed on an 8.5x11 page.

Reviewer 2 comments The title isn't quite there yet. How about "Increasing Fraser Fir rooted cutting success" or some variant that tells the reader there's something (s)he might care about here?? It's good to get something about your results into the title -- at least tell them the poster has information that will help them do better. As it is now, there's no indication in the title that you've discovered anything useful. The peach color you're using for the headings is too light -- stick with a darker color, even if it's black.

Reviewer 2 comments On right side, the verbiage following "Do cuttings from stumped trees root better:" is too complex -- break it up with sub-bullets or something -- too much text in a row. Conclusions on right side -- suggest putting first conclusion in a positive light -- they want rooting ability to increase, so say rooting ability is higher with younger trees. Note that it does not print well in B&W for handouts of miniature versions (copy in mailbox) -- title and names disappear into the photos, graphs are not complete and not readable. Ack disappears. IBA and NAA are not defined anywhere

Slide 38