ASOR Poster Session:
Information on Designing an Academic Poster
(adapted from http://guides.nyu.edu/posters)
What is a Research Poster?
Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster
presentations in their program. Research posters summarize information or research concisely and
attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion.
The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other
presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other
participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.
What makes a good poster?
•
Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
•
Title is short and draws interest
•
Word count of about 300 to 800 words
•
Text is clear and to the point
•
Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
•
Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
•
Consistent and clean layout
•
Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation
Where do I begin?
Answer these three questions:
1. What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
2. How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts,
graphs, photos, images?
3. What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?
What software can I use to make a poster?
PowerPoint: A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on
the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. (
Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint
).
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign: Feature-rich professional software that is good for
posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.
Open Source Alternatives:
OpenOffice
in the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its
PowerPoint alternative).
Inkscape
and
Gimp
are alternatives to Adobe products. For charts and
diagrams try
Gliffy
or
Lovely Charts
. A complete list of
free graphics software
.
sample of a well designed poster
sample of a poorly designed poster
Helpful websites:
http://guides.nyu.edu/posters
https://nau.edu/undergraduate-research/poster-presentation-tips/
