Poster Design

The Basics

Designing scientific posters 

A large-format poster can be either a big piece of paper or a wall-mounted monitor that can be used to communicate your research at a conference (or symposium, etc.). 

A good poster is typically composed of a: 

• Compelling title 

• Concise introduction to a captivating question 

• Overview of novel methods, or approach 

• Remarkable results in graphical form 

• Insightful conclusions related to the aforementioned results 

• Short list of previously published key references that are important to your research 

• Brief acknowledgment of any tremendous assistance and financial support from others 

If all text is kept to a minimum, a person will be able to fully read your poster in under 5 minutes (really). 

Suggested size: check with the conference or meeting at which you will present for poster size guidelines  

• Paper used for printing posters generally comes in 36” or 42”, so using one of those for either the width or height of your poster is a good place to start 

Suggested word limit: 500 words  

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Common Sections 

Title  

The title is your opportunity for biggest impact. It should be short, concise, clear, and compelling. Less is more when it comes to the title. Use a boldface type, and we recommend capitalizing each word (Title case) or only the first word (sentence case), but not using all caps! 

Suggested font size: 88 point 

Authors 

Your author list is very important. It should include all and only those who contributed to the work you are presenting. Authorship can be tricky, so it is best to consult your PI. If there are questions about authorship, you can send your abstract to a person in question and ask if they should be listed as an author. 

Once you have determined your authors, ask each person how to list their name. Many people have preferences. Triple check that you have names spelled correctly. 

Suggested font size: 65 point 

Affiliations 

Affiliations are the universities, departments, institutes, groups and/or companies to which an author belongs. The simplest way to know what affiliation you should include for an author is to ask. It is customary to include at least the primary academic department to which an author is appointed. 

Suggested font size: 40 point 

Introduction 

The introduction is typically the first section of your poster. It could also be called ‘motivation’ or ‘background’. It can be in either paragraph or bullet form or a combination thereof. Representative images are encouraged (think simple infographic). Describe your interesting question and why it really needed/needs to be addressed. 

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

Here’s a potential outline to follow: 

Problem: A one sentence description of the motivation or need that is fueling your research study. 

A bulleted description of the background of this problem area.  

Succinctly describe the problem and include any detail that might be important to understanding the rest of the poster.  

Outline what has been previously implemented to solve the problem and why this is insufficient to the issue’s current needs.  

Highlight the risks that may align with this older method. 

Solution: Communicate the aims of your research project and the goals that you hope to achieve.  

Methods 

‘Methods’, ‘materials & methods’ or ‘approach’ could all be used as potential headers for this section that describes how you did whatever you did. A great visual in the methods section goes a long way (further than text alone) to show your audience what you did. We recommend using a figure, flow chart, drawing, or photograph, along with a brief overview of your procedures, to deliver the message. Be sure to include any important materials or instruments used.  

Label each item in the figure and include a legend if one is needed to make the data understandable. Many poster viewers will focus on the images to understand your research and so each image has to contain enough information so that it can be understood independent of the text. 

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

Figure & Table Captions (20 Point) 

Minimum Font within Figures/Tables (18 Point) 

Results & Discussion 

In the results & discussion, you show us your data and explain your findings. This section should contain several figures, accompanied by descriptive figure captions. These captions should be able to explain your figures to a general scientific audience without your help. Any additional text should be brief and used to explain relationships between figures, key findings, transitions in your work or needed context for the results. 

Focus on creating simple, yet effective images that best highlight your data. You may need to go through numerous figure iterations before arriving on that ideal format. Colored arrows, callouts, or boxes should be used to focus attention on important parts of graphs. Make sure all images are high enough resolution to not be pixelated at full size. Typically 150 dpi is sufficient, over 300 dpi is usually overkill. (HINT: If you design full-size, but view at a much lower % scale to fit on your screen, check the image at 100% scale to see if the resolution is sufficient.)  

There should be a scale bar for each image that needs one (i.e. any images from a microscope). All axes should be labeled and any statistical significance illustrated on the image and in the figure caption.  

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

Figure & Table Captions: 20 Point 

Minimum Font within Figures/Tables: 18 Point 

Conclusions 

You just showed the reader all of your results, but unless they literally do the exact same work as you, you need to distill it down for them in the form of conclusions. Conclusions tell the reader why the results are important and interesting. This should tie back to your captivating problem. 

Use a bulleted list or consider locating your conclusions near the results figure from which the conclusion was drawn. That may or may not make sense to do based on your particular work. 

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

Future Work 

No research is ever finished, unless the money runs dry. So, what’s next? Something has yet to be done, to be tested, to be verified. Let the reader know your plans or the next steps for your research, even if you might not be the person to take those steps. If nothing else, this may save you a few ‘well, are you going to do this next?’ questions. 

This section could be combined with ‘conclusions’. Dealers choice. 

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

References 

You should include relevant references (i.e. ones that you cite in your background, methods, etc.). Make sure you follow a standard reference format. Your conference might suggest this, but if not, pick a common one for your field that your reference management software has in its arsenal. 

Remember, incorrectly citing information is plagiarism, so make sure to cite every piece of information that is not originally your idea or generally known for your field.  

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

Acknowledgements 

The acknowledgements section should thank your funding agencies and colleagues or friends who supported the project in an academic fashion (scientific discussions, editing, etc). 

Font size suggestions: 

Section Headers: 40 Point 

Text within Sections: 24 Point 

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Poster Style 

A research poster is a communication tool, but no one wants to look at something that isn’t visually appealing. While different colors, fonts, etc appeal to different people, you can make smart choices. Below is a list of style tips for you to consider, but ultimately, you have to be confident with your choices, get feedback and tweak as needed. 

Style Tips: 

1. PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe In Design are common software used to create posters. Canva, Publish-It, Corel Draw and LaTeX are also used. 

2. We provide font size tips throughout the section descriptions, but can’t harp enough on keeping the text large and readable. Someone standing 3 ft away should be able to read it. 

3. Use text sparingly, empty space gives the reader’s brain space to process. 

4. Select a color palette intentionally. PowerPoint has plenty of built-in color palettes (some better than others), but you can also use tools like the Adobe Color Wheel (https://color.adobe.com/create) or Coolors (https://coolors.co/) to create your scheme. Consider color-blind friendly palettes by checking what a grayscale version of your image looks like. 

5. Match your overall color palette to the colors used in your figures. This creates cohesion in your poster. 

6. Consider the contrast between your font and background/fill colors.  

7. Take caution with using an image or pattern for your poster background. It can be done, and done really well, but the execution is critical. The image/pattern can’t be too busy or it will distract the reader. 

8. Use easy-to-read fonts and don’t use too many different fonts in one poster. It’s reasonable to use one font for section headers and one font for general text. Make sure these look good together; for instance, pair a serif font with a sans serif font. 

9. Don’t be afraid to step outside the bounds of what is seemingly acceptable. Most posters are very boring visually since most researchers are not also into marketing. Appealing visual presentation will draw people in, then you have to keep them there with your intriguing research. 

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General Content 

Your general content is what will keep the reader interested. Your poster should convey a story that makes sense to the reader. The actual tortuous pathway that ultimately led to your conclusions doesn’t matter. Instead, craft a narrative, a storyboard, a screenplay—however makes sense for you to think about it—that is simple, logical, and straight-forward.  

General Content Suggestions: 

1. Just because you did it, doesn’t mean it must be included. Only include content that contributes to the story you have crafted. 

2. Don’t let standard section headings limit your content. You could instead use a series of questions as section headers and lump the related methods, results and conclusions under this header. 

3. A poster is not a manuscript and does not need to exhaustively explain things the same way.  

4. Don’t just copy and paste text from a manuscript, you’ll end up having too much text. Instead, use your manuscript as a reference, pulling key points to integrate into your poster. 

5. Your content should stand alone and be understandable by a general scientific audience. (Note: this for sure depends on the conference). 

6. This is less suggestion, more necessity: send your poster to all authors for feedback. Make sure you plan far enough in advance to be able to give them a week to reply and for you to incorporate edits and still have time to print. 

7. Consider putting your most important content first (that’s typically your conclusions). 

8. You may wish to put a QR code on your poster that will take the reader to an electronic version of your poster they can revisit. Make sure you check the conference guidelines and clear this with your PI. 

9. Some people like to print out mini posters to hand out or make available to readers. This should also adhere to conference guidelines and be cleared with your PI. 

10. You may also include your contact information or leave your business card next to your poster for readers to take if you aren’t there. 

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References & Further Reading 

http://colinpurrington.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/scientific-poster-advice-purrington.pdf 

https://guides.nyu.edu/posters 

https://hsp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ScientificPosters.pdf 

https://projects.ncsu.edu/project/posters/