Developing an academic poster

Transcription

1 Developing an academic poster Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

2 OVERVIEW Developing an academic poster Academic posters communicate summarized information or research concisely and attractively, to help publicize it and generate discussion. They also help viewers to absorb a lot of information quickly. Posters are widely used at national and international academic conferences and academic posters can reach a wide audience as they may be displayed for several hours or days. They may also be published online as part of conference proceedings, becoming part of a permanent record of research activity. An effective poster can make a strong impact, so it's worth developing your poster planning skills to publicize your own work. What is the purpose / goal of an academic poster? Your goal is to convey a clear message and support it with a compelling combination of images and short blocks of text. What makes a good poster? However you produce it, an effective academic poster should be well researched, effectively organized and attractively presented. An effective poster should be: o Focused: Focused on the main message (s). o Graphic: Lets graphs and images tell the story; uses text sparingly o Ordered: Keep the sequence well-ordered and obvious Resources required To develop a poster you need access to a P.C and PowerPoint. However a variety of software can be used to produce an academic poster. PowerPoint is one of the most popular software packages for poster development as it allows you to integrate a range of media, produce diagrams and flowcharts easily, and create custom charts and graphs from your data. Typical academic poster sizes A cm x 84.1 cm A cm x 42.0 cm Choose Portrait or Landscape orientation. A cm x 59.4 cm A cm x 29.7 cm Tip: To set the document size in PowerPoint, choose File > Page Layout > Slide Size > Custom > [ insert the size you want ]. Remember: To print effectively, images should be high resolution ( dpi). Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

3 PLANNING - How do I start planning and preparing my poster Everything you put on your poster relates to a carefully crafted message. You must be able to state your main point(s) and conclusion(s) clearly and succinctly. All visuals and text should relate to those points and conclusions. How much room do I have? Determine specific size requirements - visit conference web site or otherwise consult with conference organizers. Area available determines, in part what you can fit, and what you'll have to leave out, layout (landscape vs. portrait orientation), and how things will be organized. What milestones should I establish? Especially important if the poster is multi-authored. Start with the due date and work back to create milestones. Allow time for peer review and heavy editing. Suggested schedule. Here are some ideas for establishing milestones. This schedule assumes that you're doing other things during the week. It also allows time for your poster to "sit on the shelf" while you think about it. Of course, you can turn weeks to days and skip drafts as time pressures require. When What 0 Present poster -1 week Final print -1 week Make changes suggested by peers -1 week Distribute draft for peer review (round 2) -2 weeks Make changes suggested by peers -2 weeks Distribute draft for peer review (round 1) -3 weeks Edit your draft ruthlessly -3 weeks Create first draft of poster -4 weeks Plan out poster on scratch paper -4 weeks Define message and write an abstract (if you haven't already done so) Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

4 FOCUS - Planning content Since a poster must communicate so concisely, you will need to spend some time identifying your key points. Decide what you need to communicate, and how. What is your main message? What does your viewer need to know? Identify the key points. Once you've decided on the main content, make a rough draft of the information you need. Decide on the main Title Think about the graphics you may need such as diagrams, photographs or charts Academic posters need to show evidence of your reading around the main subject so you should always include references. Key steps in poster planning Once you've identified your main content and structure, you need to identify the graphics and formatting which will communicate your message best. How will you organise your content visually? How might you use colour and type to enhance visual impact? Visual impact Posters are designed to convey a message quickly and efficiently. What should your viewer see and understand first? Think what will communicate your key points most clearly. Find a focal point that will help draw your viewers in. This might be a key flowchart or diagram, or simply a clear main title. Make sure important graphics or information stand out clearly in your design. Remember, you may not need graphics if words are more powerful. Tip: In an academic poster, the priority is to be clear, concise and professional LAYOUT OF POSTER A clear visual grammar guides readers through your poster Your poster should use a visual grammar to guide readers to the important parts of your poster. Visual grammar is a graphic hierarchy that helps readers identify the most important parts of your poster. Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

5 use a column format to make your poster easier to read in a crowd. use organization cues to guide readers through your poster. * use "reader gravity" which pulls the eye from top to bottom and left to right (Wheildon 1995). use headings intelligently to help readers find your main points and key information. balance the placement of text and graphics to create visual appeal. use white space creatively to help define the flow of information. * There are language-specific ways in which most people read. In English, it is top-to-bottom and left-to-right. Wheildon (1995) called this "reader gravity." You should not use organizational constructs that defy reader gravity - it will confuse viewers, which is not what you want to happen. Balance and white space in your poster Your poster should have a good visual balance of figures and text, separated by white space. Balance occurs when images and text are reflected (at least approximately) across a central horizontal, vertical, or diagonal axis. This is known as the axis of symmetry. Horizontal Symmetry Horizontal & Vertical Symmetry Diagonal Symmetry Asymmetry (text-heavy on left, image-heavy on right) Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

6 Once you have the basic layout is planned you can consider graphic and text formatting in more detail. HEADINGS - including the title, section titles, and figure captions should Summarize - use headings as opportunities to summarize your work in large letters. A hurried reader should be able to get the main points from the headings alone. Organizing good headings are part of the visual grammar that helps move readers through your poster. Be hierarchical - the more important the point, the larger the type. Be bold - make the strongest statements your research allows. If you are reporting on research you conducted your heading / structure will be similar to a research report: Title, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and References If you are reporting on literature review findings your headings / structure be similar to the following example Title, Introduction, Data Collection Methods, Findings, Analysis, Discussion and References Tip: The structure / headings depends on your content, and what you wish to communicate Use of Text An academic poster needs to be clear and legible from a distance. How might you format the text? What size should it be? A poster should be legible from about one meter, and attract interest from about five meters. Aim for a word count of about 300 to 800 words. 300 words leaves plenty of room for graphics, while 800 words would be more text heavy. To be legible at a distance, the main title should be around pts, subheadings around 40 pts, body text around 24 pts. Format headings and subheadings consistently. This helps structure your information visually. For clarity, use a sans-serif font like Arial or Helvetica. Make sure there is good contrast between text and background. Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

7 GRAPHICS - When should I use graphics in my poster? An academic poster should be both professional and concise, so a general rule is only to include graphics that really support your content. Simple, clean graphics communicate relationships quickly. Use diagrams, graphs or flowcharts to help explain complex information visually. Try not to use too many different or strongly contrasting colours. A limited colour palette can be very effective. Avoid using unnecessary and distracting background textures or decoration. If your topic has a central statement, graphic, photograph or diagram, make this prominent in your design. Don't hide it in a corner! Every graphic should have a purpose. Use simple 2-dimensional line graphs, bar charts, pie charts. Avoid 3-dimensional graphs unless you're displaying 3-dimensional data - and then proceed carefully, as many 3-D graphs are difficult to interpret. Here's a very simple example showing the relationship between two animal populations through time. The main point to be made is that the lynx (predator) and hare (prey) populations oscillate through time in a somewhat predictable manner. Straight out of Excel, here's what you get: There's a lot of ink here that doesn't convey information relevant to the main point you're trying to make. Grey background: not only does it provide absolutely no information, it's also Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

8 unsightly. After you remove it, you will likely have to darken some of the lines. Grid lines: it's very unlikely that your audience cares about the exact values at each data point - it's the pattern that matters. The grid lines compete with the pattern you're trying to show. Legend: it's taking up space that would be better spent on the graph X-axis: The labeling between tick marks is confusing. Axis scales: Because the pattern is the main focus, we don't need to have such finely detailed scales - just enough to provide a sense of the range of values plotted. Y-axis label: Why make the reader tilt his or her head to read? Legend: Why make the reader look back and forth between lines and legend? Just label the lines - then eliminate the legend. Line types: Use color and line type to differentiate - this will help people who have color impaired vision, and also any grey-scale copies of the poster you make (as for handouts). It's easy to make a graph that looks cleaner and has a higher ratio of information-tototal ink: Without all the distractions, the relationship comes through loud and clear Data on lynx and hare population graphs comes from: Hess, G.R., K. Tosney, and L. Liegel Creating Effective Poster Presentations. URL= accessed Nov 2009 How much colour should I use in my poster? Use color to attract attention, organize, and emphasize - but don't overdo it. Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

9 Use a light color background and dark color letters for contrast. Avoid dark backgrounds with light letters - very tiring to read. Stick to a theme of 2 or 3 colors - much more will overload and confuse viewers. If you use multiple colors, use them in a consistent pattern - otherwise viewers will spend their time wondering what the pattern is rather than reading your poster. Overly bright colors will attract attention - and then wear out readers' eyes. Consider people who have problems differentiating colors, especially when designing graphics - one of the most common is an inability to tell green from red. EDITING - Should I edit my poster? Yes!! If it doesn't provide critical support for your main message, ELIMINATE IT! When editing your poster consider the following steps Don t be afraid to edit ruthlessly to reduce text, sentence complexity, and to delete details. RWMEMBER, if it's not relevant to your message, remove it! Have colleagues comment on drafts. Print a small version and circulate for comment, or hang a full-size draft with pens and invite them to critique. Are your objective and main message obvious? Will readers be able to contact you? How do I prepare for a poster presentation? First, allow plenty of time to prepare and produce your poster. You will need to plan your content, design the layout, write and edit it, organise production and printing. It's also a good idea to prepare handouts for people to take away. Make sure you know the time, date, and location of the session. Check the arrangements for display. You might need to produce your poster to a certain size, laminate it, provide Velcro tabs Think about what you will say, anticipate likely questions and practice your responses. At a poster presentation, you will normally be asked to stand beside your poster, say a few words, and answer questions. This allows people to discuss the content in a more informal, less threatening setting than during an oral presentation, which might have a very large audience. It is also Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January

10 possible to have more detailed one to one discussions with the people who are interested in your poster. Tip: If your poster is to be distributed online, convert it to PDF (Portable Document Format). Information accessed to compile this learning resource www2.napier.ac.uk/getready/writing_presenting/academic_posters.html Edinburgh Napier University Getting Ready for University, - Nov Hess, G.R., K. Tosney, and L. Liegel Creating Effective Poster Presentations. - Nov 2009 Enhancement of Learning DRHEA January