1 / 20

Creating Effective Poster Presentations

Creating Effective Poster Presentations. Stuart Boon Centre for Academic Practice & Learning Enhancement. Outline. Purpose Content Design Construction Tips Summary. Purpose. Why use posters?. Purpose.

trella
Download Presentation

Creating Effective Poster Presentations

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Creating Effective Poster Presentations Stuart Boon Centre for Academic Practice & Learning Enhancement

  2. Outline • Purpose • Content • Design • Construction • Tips • Summary

  3. Purpose Why use posters?

  4. Purpose • To present a summary of research or scholarship in a format that is easily and widely accessible • To reach a large audience • To allow many people to report findings in a single session • To allow people with similar interests to meet and discuss detailed topics or ideas

  5. Purpose: Cognitive • The purpose of using a poster • On the Surface: • To inform • To communicate information and ideas to peer • Beneath the Surface: • To persuade or influence • To affect change in another’s understanding

  6. Purpose: Your Audience • Consider: • How can I best inform my audience? • What do I know about them? • What are they likely to respond to? • What do they need to learn from me? • How can I best speak to them? • What ‘language’ should I use? • How can I engage them?

  7. Content • Typical components of a poster: • Title • Author(s) - names & affiliations • Abstract or Summary - approach & main findings • Introduction • Materials & Methods - describing experimental or field research, background theory or historical overview • Results - key findings • Conclusions • Acknowledgements, References & Sources

  8. Content: Focus • Focus your content! • What is the one main point you want to make? • Use a statement, diagram or image that will grab your audience’s attention • Your audience will not likely approach if it is not clear what your topic or theme is from a “safe distance” (2 - 3 metres) - use less but bigger text • In most situations, your audience will have a limited time to view posters

  9. Design • Provide a neat, logical arrangement of text and graphics • Leave white space to provide structure and distinguish elements from each other • Consider: • Having a focal point for your poster • Using a striking overall design related to the topic • Attractive and effective use of colour • Keep proper contrast between background and text

  10. Design: Content Paths 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 1 2 3 1 4 5 7 8 6 7 6 5 4

  11. Design: Visual • Colour • use sparingly to emphasize, makedistinct, or connect information • Fonts • use large, simple fonts (24pt+) so that your text is readable from at least 2 metres • White Space • effective posters are spacious and easy to follow; adequate clear space will direct attention to key elements

  12. Design: Visual 2 • Balance • Provide a balance of text, graphics, and other visual elements (colour, white space, etc.) • 40% graphics is suggested • Guidelines • If you cannot avoid a complex design or a degree of clutter, try to provide guidelines such as arrows from one panel to another, or numbering your headings

  13. Construction • Software • Microsoft PowerPoint - highly recommended! • Adobe Photoshop or InDesign • CorelDraw or other ‘paint’ programs • Graphics / Images • Do not use compressed images (.jpg / .gif) • Use uncompressed TIFF (.tif) and the higher the resolution the better (300dpi+) • Printing • Who is printing your poster? The department, yourself or University Print Shop?

  14. Construction: Dots Per Inch

  15. Tips • Keep text to a minimum • For impact and to attract visitors • Huge blocks of tiny text attract people like dentists attract children -- that is… they don’t! • Don’t try to tell the whole story on your poster • Edit out extraneous and superficial material • Present only enough information and data to support your conclusions

  16. Tips: Handouts • Provide a handout for interested visitors • Include a summary of your poster • Title • Abstract • Key figures and findings • Include text, tables and graphics you weren’t able to include on your poster • Include your contact details • Name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, etc.

  17. Tips: At the conference • Transportation • How readily does your poster travel? • Roll up? Break down? Can you take it with you? • Tools for the conference • Tape - ordinary and double-sided • Velcro / Bluetac / Pushpins / String • Scissors • Pens or pencils

  18. Tips: Presentation • Presenting your poster • Arrive early! • Be prepared to chat and answer questions • Have your handouts ready • Dress appropriately for the venue

  19. Summary • Consider • What is your poster trying to achieve? • Who is your audience? • What content do you need to achieve your purpose and reach your audience? • What design / elements will work best for your purpose? • How are you going to construct it and get it printed? • What do you need on the day of the presentation?

  20. Thank you! For more information: Stuart Boon Centre for Academic Practice & Learning Enhancement Graham Hills Building, John Anderson Campus stuart.boon@strath.ac.uk

More Related