A guide to preparing posters
What is a poster?
A poster is “an experiential learning activity that stimulates curiosity and interest,
encourages exploration and integration of concepts and provides students with a novel way
of demonstrating understanding” (Handron, 1994, in Bracher, Cantrell & Wilkie, 1998).
Posters are often used to display complex ideas in a concise manner to an audience
consisting of multiple people. Conferences, for instance, often allow delegates to submit and
present posters, instead of giving formal presentations or talks. In conferences, the posters
are displayed throughout the entire conference in a communal area of the conference
location (e.g. in the reception hall) – the audience can view them at their leisure, while
specific times are usually dedicated to poster presentations, whereby the poster designers
will stand next to their poster and interact with any audience member who shows an interest
in the poster. The main aim here is to draw in an audience and have good discussions with
them about the topic of the poster – this is a great way to showcase someone's work and
gain useful contacts at the same time.
Posters can be designed for any purpose, e.g. to replace an academic paper or essay. A
paper or essay presents all the information the author wants to present, while a poster uses
visual aids to present only the most important information.
Posters:
Develop your communication and creativity skills;
Are a creative alternative to the traditional essay, report or paper;
Encourage you to thoroughly investigate the topic;
Enable your peers to also learn from your research (without them having to read a
entire essay!) (Be
y & Houston, 1995);
Engage visual learners (Summers, 2005)
What does a good poster look like?
This depends upon the field and audience. O’Neill and Jennings (2012, pp. 5ff) provide a
good overview of the various uses of posters in different contexts. It is obviously important to
carefully consider the
ief you are given – in this case, the assessment requirements.
Needs to be eye-catching; you need to understand where different material is on your
poster, i.e. you should not be searching when presenting.
Effective poster design tips
1. The message
Your poster needs to be understood at a glance, i.e. it needs to be clear and concise
and present the most important information in an accessible and visually appealing
manner. It is a good idea to write an abstract (in sentence or bullet point format),
which includes all the main points your poster needs to cover. Do not overcomplicate
things and make sure you stick with the topic.
The poster has to convey the message, so consider also whether you can use non-
ve
al means (e.g. font, graphics, pictures, etc.) to do so.
Your poster will certainly contain some text. This can be sentences or bullet points o
a combination of both. The amount of text required will depend upon what you want
to convey – if large amounts of text are needed, consider using Serif fonts (e.g.
Times New Roman) as they tend to increase readability of long texts.
2. The title and section headers
a. The title of the poster will (most likely) be the most eye-catching part of you
poster and it will be one of the ‘hooks’ that draws people towards your poster.
Make sure it is succinct, catchy, clear and visible (this may mean it needs to
e large and/or colourful).
As a rule of thumb, the title should be at least 5 times bigger than the body
font. Be conscious of the fact that some fonts are easier to read than others –
Sans Serif fonts like Arial or Verdana are usually easiest to read as titles.
. Section headers are also important. Make sure they are also catchy and
concise and use them to guide the viewer thru the poster.
3. The design
a. Start by considering if you want your poster to be portrait or landscape. If
presenting at conferences, the organisers may have specific requirements
that you have to follow. In MGMT20140, there is no prescribed orientation of
the poster – you choose!
. It is a good idea to sketch out the poster on an A4 page. Use your abstract to
identify keywords or themes that you need to consider on the poster; and do
not forget to include separate sections with your contact details and the
eferences you used. Depending on how many keywords or themes there are,
you can sub-divide the page accordingly and start sketching the location of
each theme or section. I usually use post-it notes to show the various
sections of the poster as I can move these around while deciding upon the
est suitable layout. Also remember that not all sections have to be the same
size – it completely depends upon the content of each section; in fact, it may
look better if sections differ in size as it is more eye-catching.
c. Once you have chosen the layout, you may want to consider whether you
sections need to be viewed in some sort of logical order – sequencing of
sections can be done by using numbering, a
ows, paths, graphics, etc.
d. Remember that posters are VISUAL displays, rather than a large page full of
text. Make sure you include visual aids – graphics, photos, diagrams, etc. The
ule of thumb is this: ‘Use less text and more visuals BUT the poster must
emain self-explanatory’
e. Visuals that you have created yourself can be used for any poste
presentation. Visuals that you have taken from another source (e.g. web,
ook, etc.) must not be used for published posters unless you have the
copyright owner’s permission. For MGMT20140, the rules are less stringent
ecause the poster is meant for assessment purposes only – you do not have
to seek copyright permission unless you choose to publish the poste
elsewhere afterwards. However, you have to reference the source of any
visuals on your poster.
f. The use of colours affects the visual effect a poster can have. You can evoke
various feelings with colours (e.g. warmth vs cold colours, etc.) but bear in
mind that over-use of colours can hinder your message from getting across.
Also remember that a large portion of the general population suffers from
colour deficiency. Make use of colour wheels to identify contrasting and
complementary colours and consider the level of contrast between
ackground and content.
4. Other hints and tips
a. Consider transparency settings, especially when using texture and images as
ackground
. Consider describing images/graphs in words if they are completely not self-
explanatory
c. Check how the poster will look on a projector screen (you can always ask the
unit co-ordinator the week before submission…)
Some poster examples: have a look to see what you think makes a good
ad poster
http:
sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot XXXXXXXXXXat XXXXXXXXXXPM.png
Topic of the poster: ‘Coffee’.
This poster was presented at a
conference for doctoral students
in 2005. Its purpose was to
summarise (on A3) your unit co-
ordinator's proposed doctoral
esearch.
This is a template for a research
poster, which is meant to detail
completed research projects.
http:
sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot XXXXXXXXXXat XXXXXXXXXXPM.png
http:
www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm
This is an alternative template for
esearch posters.
http:
sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot XXXXXXXXXXat XXXXXXXXXXPM.png
A poster detailing a new product
idea.
You can find more ideas and posters on Google images if looking for ‘Poster
Presentation’ – get inspired but remember to follow YOUR MGMT20140 assessment
equirements and do NOT copy someone else’s poster!
Further Resources
A very good website with additional tips of how to create posters:
https:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters
A comparison between an effective and a less effective poster:
https:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/DefineMessageAlternatives.html
This site contains various poster ideas and templates but be aware they are for
SCIENTIFIC posters and may not be fully suitable for MGMT20140’s requirements:
http:
www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm
http:
www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm
http:
sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot XXXXXXXXXXat XXXXXXXXXXPM.png
https:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qUjUeRJy4&feature=share&list=PLQYPRVJgjEZZd9EAqwml53ziYOqIdQpJ3
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qUjUeRJy4&feature=share&list=PLQYPRVJgjEZZd9EAqwml53ziYOqIdQpJ3
https:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/DefineMessageAlternatives.html
http:
www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm
References
Be
y, J. & Houston, K. (1995) ‘Students Using Posters as a Means of Communication and
Assessment’, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 29 (1).
Bracher, L., Cantrell, J. & Wilkie, K. (1998) ‘The process of poster presentation: a valuable
learning experience’, Medical Teacher, 20 (6), pp XXXXXXXXXX.
Hess, G.R., Tosney, K. & Liegel, L. (2014) ‘Creating Effective Poster Presentations’,
available at: http:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters.
O’Neill, G. & Jennings, D. (2012) ‘ASSESSMENT. The Use of Posters for Assessment: A
Guide for Staff’, available at: http:
www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0039.pdf.
Summers, K. (2005) ‘Student assessment using poster presentations’, Paediatric Nursing,
17 (8), pp. 24-26.
http:
www.ncsu.edu/project/posters
http:
www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0039.pdf