Part 01: The Content
Defining a Poster.
A poster is a graphic material devised to deliver a message, it integrated as an aesthetic unity by high impact images and brief text. The message of a poster has to be global integrating each one of the elements in a single blended aesthetic unit.
There are two types of posters: Informative and formative.
The Informative Poster, is meant to communicate events, conferences, courses, social reunions, shows, etc.
The Formative Poster, is used as a channel to inform the audience about a specific topic or even explain activities.
The Scientific Poster.
The scientific poster is a formative poster. As we know already, the poster is meant to communicate a message Through the scientific poster, we will be presenting work to an audience who could be on a hall, an exhibition or even on the outdoors. It is common for the presenter to be standing next to the poster allowing and inviting the audience to engage into one-on-one discussion about the message or in this case the subject presented. Some exhibitions will require the poster to be standing alone, this means the presenter will not have the opportunity to explain the content or to establish any direct conversation with the audience, which will make the information fully dependable from the poster.
Quick contents for the poster.
- Header
- Title
- Authors
- Short description
- Introduction
- Methodology
- Results
- Discussion (optional)
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
Header.
Tilte.
- Make sure the title is the most visible text area of the poster.
- Do not use capital letters for all the typeset.
- Try to use short words (of, from, with, an, and and) to separate details in the title, and it is correct not to capitalize these words.
- It is recommended to locate the title on the top.
- The Authors can be placed just underneath the title.
- According to the kind of audience you are focusing, the title should be catchy in order to drag more interest.
Short Description.
We should try to make the audience recognize what is the poster about and of course its purpose; the audience should be able to do so within 20 seconds, so let’s try to keep it simple.
Introduction.
Do not include the abstract on the poster! Most of the time the abstract will be sent for different uses like: the conference catalog. Although this is not a rule, make sure you ask the organizers the requierements (if any) for the poster.
We will try to get the audience interested in the project straight away by providing only the essential information and definitions, and straight away place the issue in the context. This is also the perfect place to present your hipotesis and perhaps provide description and justification of general experimental approach. (200 words)
Methodology and Materials.
Briefly, describe your materials and methods, although remember this is not a manuscript, so, be brief. Use graphics or graphical ornaments to explain the experimental design if possible; use artistic visualizations to represent the experimental procedures. (200 words)
Results.
You will have to basic answers: Success or Fail. Make sure you mention at first whether the experiment worked and the details of it ( 90% of subjects survived ), and describe qualitative and quantitative results.
After this content proceed to show the data analysis that directly addresses the hypothesis; refer to data visualization design concepts. (200 words without legends )
Conclusion.
Discuss what are your results and their relevance. Perhaps explain how are your findings relevant to real organisms and future directions. (200 words)
Bibliography.
In this case is recommended to place the most relevant citations and sources from your project. Keep in mind that all content that has been quoted from other authors, needs to be properly acknowledged.
Part 02 – Layout and Design Issues
Bibliography.
Block, S. 1996. The DOs and DON’Ts of poster presentation. Biophysical Journal 71:3527-3529
Briscoe, M.H. 1996. Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and Publications, 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag, New York
Advice on designing scientific posters. Colin Purrington, Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Presentations (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2003), pp. 211-217.
http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/posters.html
La alegría de publicar 3. Las presentaciones de carteles en congresos científicos. Carlos Alfonso Reyes, M.D.1, Guillermo Llanos, M.D
Five simple steps to designing grid systems, Mark Boulton
Recomendaciones en la elaboración de un cartel.
Dimitrij Mlekuž
July 6, 2010
Great Post! We really could use some input from designers!