When you are preparing for your poster presentation, there are a number of things that you need to keep in mind. This article is not meant to scare you or to make you more frantic than you probably already are. This is just an outline of certain things that you have to keep in mind so you wouldn’t have to put as much effort into creating your large format poster as you did with the whole duration of your study.
Factors to consider in your poster
To get a clearer idea of how to go about this, here is a list of things that you need to take into consideration to have an effective poster:
1. Include all the necessary information
Your poster should have the basic information that the readers need to understand your study. These are usually, but not all, the contents of posters: abstract, objectives of the study, definition of key terms and keywords, background studies, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, methodology, results, conclusions, and major references.
Don’t forget your name, of course, and the institution you are affiliated with.
2. Include images
A poster is a communication medium that is predominantly graphical. This means that while it does contain texts, there should be more images and illustrations. This pretty much determines how you’ll go about with the process of designing and layouting your large format poster.
When it comes to poster presentations, there are a lot of texts that you do need to get into your limited space. So to achieve a graphical poster without trimming down much the words that need to be put there, just make sure that you make it as visual as possible by providing an ample amount of images.
These visuals may include a schematic diagram of experimental procedure made of pictures and with text captions. Or it could be a picture detailing your experimental set-up, the design of a machine you developed and tested, or images of magnified specimens that you need to show.
As for your results, if they can be presented in a graph or a nicely arranged table, that would be best. Supporting sentences would be helpful but keep them short and few.
3. Make the contents clear
The idea is for your study to be understood, not to intimidate the readers. Keep the contents simple and clear so as not to scare off those who are viewing your poster.
With your texts, make sure that they are readable even from a distance of about five feet. Even the relatively small text like labels of figures and headings of tables should be visible and easy to decipher.
Arrange your texts with the images properly so it won’t be taxing to read and understand at the same time.
Conventions usually have guidelines. To be more enlightened, it would be best to coordinate with the organizers. Get a list of the details such as exact measurement of poster and other particulars. But all that was mentioned above are applicable, regardless of the specific formats to be given to you.
Keep it visual. Keep it short. Keep it simple. Remember to observe these factors in every large format poster you’ll make. This will prevent your readers from getting lost or confused midway through your poster. When all else gets too overwhelming for you, just follow the sentences below.
Loves to read and talk anything under the sun. From current events, magazines, social life, metro lifestyles, traveling etc. Not a born writer but experience could make a difference. He also loves to eat especially travel in different places. Going to beaches and mountains really completes his life.