Poster Presentation: 101

Poster Session 101 (required along with written mini-ethnography)

General format

1. Determine the one essential concept you would like to get across to the audience.
2. Re-read your abstract once again - are those statements still accurate?
3. Determine the size of the poster (if you had read the instructions, you would already know this!).
4. Determine if you have all the elements you'll need for the poster: Bits & pieces?Poster board, glue, razor blades, Band aids . . . Data? Do you have the data you will need? How much time will you need to prepare the data for presentation (tables, photographs, etc.)? Outside agencies? Does material need to be sent out & returned (photographic services, collaborators)?

A word of advice (the first of many; pick and choose what works for you). Preparing a poster will take as much time as you let it. Allocate your time wisely.

• There are always things that go wrong, so do not wait until the last minute to do even a simple task.
• This is a public presentation; by planning carefully, striving to be clear in what you say and how you say it, and assuming a professional attitude you will avoid making it a public spectacle.
• If you have little experience making posters, it will take longer (estimate 1 week at the very minimum).
• Too much lead time, however, encourages endless fussing about. Do the poster to the best of your ability, then go do something else. 

Sketch it out!

Make a sketch of the poster, using 4 inch x 6 inch cards: Arrange the contents in a series of 3, 4, or 5 columns. This will facilitate the flow of traffic past the poster: 

Place the elements of the poster in position:

• The title will appear across the top.
• A brief introduction (3 - 5 sentences) will appear at the upper left.
• The conclusions will appear at the lower right.
• Methods and Results will fill the remaining space. 

The Title banner

This part of the poster includes the title of the work, the authors names, the institutional affiliations, and the poster number.

Think BIG!

1. The title banner should be readable from 15 - 20 feet away.
2. If space permits, use first names for authors to facilitate interactions.
3. Middle initials and titles are seldom necessary, however.
4. Use abbreviations where possible.
5. City names, or even states, often may be dropped from the institutional affiliations.
6. There are seldom rules regarding line justification of the title. Determine if you will left or center justify the text of the title banner once it has been formatted, based upon personal preferences and space constraints.
7. Refer to your meeting guidelines for more details specific to the meeting you plan to attend. 

Title Fonts:

Make it easy on your information-saturated audience.

1. Use a simple, easy to read font. A san serif style, such as Helvetica (Mac) or Arial (IBM), is ideal.
2. Use boldface and all-caps for the title itself.
3. Use boldface and mixed upper/lower case for the authors names.
4. Use plain text, no boldface, and mixed upper/lower case for affiliations.
5. Use boldface for the poster session number (the number you are assigned by the organizing committee). 

Title sizes

The most important parts of the title banner, the title itself and the poster session number, should be readable from about 25 feet away. Your title will lure viewers closer to see your imaginative and exciting study. The rest of the title, and the body of the poster, should be readable from about 10 feet away.

1. The final size of letters in the title itself should be about 1.5 - 2 inches tall. That is about a 96 point size (or 48 points enlarged by 200% when printed.
2. The authors names may be printed smaller, at 72 points (1 - 1.5 inches)
3. Titles (Ph.D., M.D.) are usually omitted, although the meeting organizers may require that the presenting author, student authors, or society members be indicated.
4. Affiliations can be even smaller, at about 36 - 48 points (0.5 - 0.75 inch)
5. The poster session number should be printed separately, at about 96 point size. It typically is placed in the top of the title banner, to the left, right, or at the center. 

Banner assembly:

A one-piece banner is easiest to carry, and some places have an in-house banner-making service. Commercial firms may also offer this service - try a Kinko's or similar company. I've noticed that branches of these companies that are located close to a university are more flexible in meeting academic & scientific needs than those branches located in shopping malls or the business community.

If you choose this route:

• Call the banner service and ask for specific instructions regarding formatting and submission. Here are some Details for those at the KU Medical Center.
• Proofread the banner. Several times.
• Save it to disk. Then back it up onto another disk.

An alternative is to use a laser printer and double-stick tape: 

1. Set the printer output to landscape (wide) format, using 11 x 14 inch paper (you'll have fewer seams than if you use 8.5 x 11 inch paper).
2. Print the title & lay it out on a table. Proofread it now, rather than after you have assembled it!
3. Successive pages should overlap with only a small margin.
4. Trim the overlap off one side of each page, and place a piece of double-stick tape in that position on the other page, then align the successive pages.
5. This process is easier if you have included 2 thin, parallel lines across all pages of the banner, one above the text & one below. These lines will make it easier to align multiple pages. Once the banner is printed and put together, you can trim away the parallel lines with a straightedge & razor blade.

Either method produces a title banner which should be about 4 - 8 inches tall, and which can be rolled into a compact cylinder for travel.

Use of Color

Mount poster materials on colored art, mat, or bristol board:

1. Mat board is available in a large range of colors.
2. Mat board is heavier, making it more difficult to crease the poster while traveling.
3. Mat board has a more durable surface than other art papers.
4. Mat boards is, however, heavier and more difficult to attach to display boards in the poster session.

Use a colored background to unify your poster:

1. Muted colors, or shades of gray, are best for the background. Use more intense colors as borders or for emphasis, but be conservative - overuse of color is distracting.
2. Two to three related background colors (Methods, Data, Interpretation) will unify the poster.
3. If necessary for emphasis, add a single additional color by mounting the figure on thinner poster board, or outlining the figure in colored tape.

Color can enhance the hues or contrast of photographs:

1. Use a light background with darker photos; a dark background with lighter photos.
2. Use a neutral background (gray) to emphasize color in photos; a white background to reduce the impact of colored photos.
3. 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. Also, all colors will be intensified; bright (saturated) colors may become unpleasent to view. 

Sequencing contents

The poster should use photos, figures, and tables to tell the story of the study. For clarity, it is important to present the information in a sequence which is easy to follow:

1. Determine a logical sequence for the material you will be presenting.
2. Organize that material into sections (Methods, Data/Results, Implications, Conclusions, etc.).
3. Use numbers (Helvetica boldface, 36 - 48 points) to help sequence sections of the poster.
4. Arrange the material into columns.
5. The poster should not rely upon your verbal explanation to link together the various portions. 

Edit Ruthlessly!

There ALWAYS is too much text in a poster.

1. Posters primarily are visual presentations; the text materials serve to support the graphic materials.
2. Look critically at the layout. If there is about 20% text, 40% graphics and 40% empty space, you are doing well.
3. When in doubt, rephrase that text or delete it. (Keep chanting this mantra: Therealways is too much text. Always too much text.)
4. Use active voice when writing the text; It can be demonstrated becomes The data demonstrate.
5. Delete all redundant references and filler phrases, such as see Figure ...
6. Remove all material extraneous to the focal point of the poster.
7. Since the abstract is usually published, there is no need to repeat it in the poster. The brief introduction should be sufficient to identify the purpose of the study.
8. Since graphs & figures will have explanatory captions, there is no need to label the graphic with Figure 1, Table 2, etc.

The poster is not a publication of record, so excessive detail about methods, or vast tables of data are not necessary. This material can be discussed with interested persons individually during or after the session, or presented in a handout.

Illustrations

The success of a poster directly relates to the clarity of the illustrations and tables.

• Self-explanatory graphics should dominate the poster.
• 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.
• Graphic materials should be visible easily from a minimum distance of 6 feet.
• Restrained use of 2 - 3 colors for emphasis is valuable; overuse is not. 

Show no mercy when editing visual materials!

Once again, ruthless editing is very important.

Visual distractions increase fatigue and reduce the probability of viewers giving the poster a thorough read. 

• Restrained use of large type and/or colored text are the most effective means of emphasizing particular points.
• Use short sentences, simple words, and bullets to illustrate discrete points.
• Have the left edges of materials in a column aligned; center alignment produces ragged left & right edges. This makes reading the poster more difficult.
• Avoid using jargon, acronyms, or unusual abbreviations.
• Remove all non-essential information from graphs and tables (data curves not discussed by the poster; excess grid lines in tables)
• Label data lines in graphs directly, using large type & color. Eliminate legends and keys.
• Artful illustrations, luminous colors, or exquisite computer-rendered drawings do not substitute for CONTENT.
• Lines in illustrations should be larger than normal. Use contrast and colors for emphasis.
• Use colors to distinguish different data groups in graphs. Avoid using patterns or open bars in histograms.
• Use borders about 0.5 inches all around each figures. Border colors can be used to link related presentations of data.
• Colored transparency overlays are useful in comparing/contrasting graphic results

Poster text

Double-space all text, using left-justification; text with even left sides and jagged right sides is easiest to read.
The text should be large enough to be read easily from at least 6 feet away. 

• Section headings (Introduction, Methods, etc.); use Helvetica, Boldface, 36 point
• Supporting text (Intro text, figure captions, etc.); use Helvetica, 24 point (boldface, if appropriate)
• If you must include narrative details, keep them brief. They should be no smaller than 18 point in size, and printed in plain text. Remember that posters are not publications of record, and you can always come to the session armed with handouts.

One option is to consider using a larger size (36 pt) for the Conclusion text, and a smaller size (18 pt) for Methods text.

Attempt to fit blocks of text onto a single page:

• This simplifies cutting and pasting when you assemle the poster.
• For the same reason, consider using 11 x 14 inch paper in the landscape mode when printing text blocks on laser printers.

Other options for fonts include Helvetica, Arial, Geneva, Times Roman, Palatino, Century Schoolbook, Courier, and Prestige. Note that these fonts represent a range of letter spacing and letter heights. Keep in mind that san serif fonts (having characters without curliques or other embellishments) are easiest to read.

Finally, 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 Poster's Background

Two basic rules to keep in mind are that

1) Artistry does not substitute for content

2) The fancier the poster, the greater the time investment.

There are several common approaches.

• Some folks use pieces of mat board (or Bristol board) to make a solid background for the entire poster. They may then choose to use a complementary color as a border for important elements of the poster.
• Others use smaller pieces of board to frame only the elements of the poster, leaving spaces between the elements empty.
  Either approach works; the former gives a unified appearance and is easier to hang straight, while the latter is easier to carry to and from the meeting. It is also possible, but often expensive, to have a commercial house reproduce your completed poster as a single large sheet of paper, which can then be rolled into a cylinder for transport.
  The choice of a background (and complement) color is up to you. The general consensus, however, is that softer colors (pastels, greys) work best as a background - they are easiest to view for hours at a time, and offer the best contrast for text, graphic, and photographic elements.

With an increasing reliance placed upon poster presentations for information transfer at meetings, there comes an increased impatience with poorly presented materials.

Although the poster preparation will expand to fill whatever time you allow it, don't be caught with an unfinished poster!

Plan ahead!

You have probably heard this again and again. That is because it is IMPORTANT!

Planning ahead is particularly important if photographs are to be used.

• Allow time for at least two rounds of photographic processing to take place, just in case.
• Custom photo processing may be more expensive, but offers rapid turn-around and precise color balancing.
• Use sufficient enlargement to allow details to be seen at a distance of 6 feet or more. 

Down to the Wire and Beyond

Those who choose to live on the edge should note that:

• Many larger meetings will have computers available for modifying posters. These facilities are, however, usually crowded.
• There are always photo supply stores near the meeting which will sell you poster materials.
• If you are unfamiliar with the city, ask the hotel concierge for local businesses which might be able to help. Remember to tip!
• Many hotels will have photocopy and Fax machines for guest use, and telecommunication ports in the hotel rooms.
• The world of portable computers and the Internet offers interesting possibilities for a graceful recovery. Leave your poster on a server and you can access it from a remote site.
• Before you leave for the trip, make a final backup copy & leave the disk in an obvious place. That way, you can have someone who has stayed behind print portions of the poster and fax then to you.

Miscellaneous comments

• Since a poster is essentially a visual presentation, try to find ways to show what was done - use schematic diagrams, arrows, and other strategies to direct the visual attention of the viewer, rather than explaining it all using text alone.
• Design the poster to address one central question. State the question clearly in the poster, then use your discussion time with individuals to expand or expound upon issues surrounding that central theme.
• Provide an explicit take-home message.
• Summarize implications and conclusions briefly, and in user-friendly language.
• Give credit where it is due. Have an acknowledgements section, in smaller size type (14 - 18 point), where you acknowledge contributors and funding organizations.
• Vary the size and spacing of the poster sections to add visual interest, but do so in moderation.

 ----------------SUMMARY-------------------------------

Below are particular points to consider when putting your poster together:

Ø      Divide the contents of your poster into appropriate sections.  For instance -- title of paper, author, institutional affiliation; abstract; methodology; data; results; conclusions.  Be sure to include each section on a separate sheet(s) of paper.

Ø      Use larger (than 16 font) lettering for the poster's title, author and institutional affiliation.  Make the lettering at least one inch high.

Ø      Avoid fonts that are script or difficult to read.

Ø      If hand lettering is required, use a black felt-tip pen (Sharpie).

Ø      Be concise with your written material.  Save elaborative points for discussion/interaction with viewers.  For conclusions, focus on a central finding that lends itself to informal discussion.

Ø      Use graphs, charts and/or tables (color if possible) to show results. Graphics help make your poster interesting.

Ø      A neutral poster or matte board is more amenable to the eye than a bright colored background.  A splash of color here and there, perhaps highlighting central finding(s) or provocative results, will make your poster "stand out" from the crowd.

Ø      A mailing tube or portfolio case is recommended for transporting your poster.

Ø      Have a notepad handy when presenting at your poster session.  It may be helpful in elaborating on your findings, or for taking names & addresses of people interested in your research.