A brief overview of poster presentations as a form of engagement.

1. Creating Engagement with
Posters
Lawrence G. Miller
Director of NISOD
University of Texas at Austin

2. Creating Engagement with Posters

4. With a poster presentation,
you spend your time as a
presenter in conversation
with those who care about
your topic
Casual - yet informing
and engaging

5. Special Thanks to
Rebecca A. Wilcox, Ph.D.
Senior Program Coordinator
and the team at the
Office of Undergraduate Research
University of Texas at Austin
Guide to Creating Research Posters
http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/our/poster

6. Where to Start?
It is a process
 Assess your goal and
audience
 Develop the content – what
you did and how you did it
 Organize the material
 Design the poster
 Communicate – stand there
and engage

7. Message Design
 Who will be the target audience for your
research project?
 An uninformed audience?
 A practitioner or scholar from a different field?
 A practitioner or scholar from your field?
 What do you hope to accomplish with your
poster presentation?
 Inform your audience?
 Persuade your audience?
 Engage others in an ongoing process?

8. Message Design
 Must have elements for a poster
 Title
 Collaborators and their institutional
affiliations
 Strategies, materials and methods
 Results, discussion, conclusion
 Acknowledgments
 Contact information
 Optional or situational
 Background/literature review
 Research question/s
 Future directions
 Abstract or summary
 It is critical to have eye appeal – use
visual elements

9. Message Design
 Organize carefully
 The space on a poster is too limited to present
your entire research project
 Extracting important ideas and organizing
information efficiently is essential to the poster-
design process
 Make Your Poster Easy to Read
 Create a Logical Visual Flow
 Craft the “Take-Away Message”

10. Visualization
 Software
 Microsoft PowerPoint
 Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop
 Page Setup
 Make a large workspace - 46-50’‘x40’‘
 Typically landscape orientation
 Graphics
 Make your poster visually appealing with
appropriate images
 Graphs are less text-heavy than tables

11. Visualization: Text
• Be careful with using multiple fonts on your
poster
• The most typical are Times New
Roman, Garamond, Calabri (used here), and
Arial
• The minimum text size for a poster is 18-24 pt
• Headings should be between 30 and 60 pt
• Poster title should be over 72 pt
• Do not OVERUSE CAPITAL LETTERS or underlining
• Use bold or italicized type sparingly

12. Visualization: Colors & White Space
 Colors
 Use a light color for the background, dark color for
text
 Avoid distracting patterns or complex background
images
 When using colors to add emphasis, be consistent -
viewers look for a pattern in a series of colors
 Remember some people cannot distinguish between
certain colors, such as red and green.
 White Space
 Divide sections by using empty, white space

13. Examples: Symmetry
Diagonal Symmetry
Vertical & Horizontal Symmetry
Asymmetry with text-heavy on left, image-heavy on right

14. Example: Graphic Hierarchy
A graphic hierarchy style visually reflects the relative importance of elements

15. Example: Columnar Format
Readers tend to read top to bottom, know as "reader gravity"

16. Printing Posters
• Change your image size to
print – do this first
• Use large, high-resolution
images (above 300 dpi)
• Proofread your poster with
great care before you leave
the printer
Use the “Custom” setting
Set for inches

17. Printing Posters
• Some colleges will have a wide-
carriage ink jet printer
• If not, printing services and sign
companies are available
• There are also online printing
services
• If you need a more permanent
poster, consider lamination

18. Transporting & Hanging Your Poster
 If you are traveling a long-distance to
NISOD with your poster, it is advisable
to use a mailing tube
 When you arrive at the Austin
Convention Center, you will be
provided fasterners to hang your
poster
 There will be a table for handouts or
other material

19. NISOD Poster Presentation and
Competition
• Posters will be judged
• Judges will select 1st,
2nd, & 3rd place winners
• All NISOD participants
will select a “Best of
Show” winner
• The four winning
posters will receive
prizes

20. Submit a Poster for the NISOD
Conference (May 26-29, 2013)
www.nisod.org
Call for Presentations
Questions?
director@nisod.org

21. 35thInternational
Conference on
Teaching &
Leadership
Excellence