This document provides guidance on designing effective scientific posters. It discusses the purpose of scientific posters to communicate research findings visually. Key requirements are outlined, including dimensions and due dates. Design principles are presented such as using images to guide layout instead of text, avoiding clutter, and ensuring proper alignment and structure. Text should be used sparingly in bullet points and headings instead of paragraphs. Sample poster templates are shown, including a left to right flow and centered image with peripheral explanations. Resources for poster design are listed.

1. Designing a Scientific
Poster
Maggie Dickinson
Macaulay Instructional Technology Fellow
Queens College
(With slides borrowed from fellow ITF’s Russell Hogg and Craig Willse)

2. Today’s Goals:
1. Understand project expectations
2. Learn the basics of poster design
3. Determine elements of successful poster design

3. What’s a Scientific
Poster, Anyway?
Visual means for communicating research to
an academic or professional community.
It is a summary of research that serves to
create interest by highlighting most important
findings.

5. Requirements
 Each group must produce one poster.
 Posters can be made with Keynote,
PowerPoint or Illustrator.
 Poster dimensions must be 48” x 36” (or
vice versa).

6. Due Dates
First Draft due in class November 17
Final Version printed by December 5
Poster presentations at Macaulay December 6-8

7. What makes a
poster succeed?

8. Communicating
your
ideaseffectiv
ely.
The Pavlov Principle

9. Design Matters:
Images should guide the overall layout, not the text.
 Avoid cluttering the poster (graphs, photos, etc.).
 Watch your color contrasts.
 Make sure all components are aligned properly.
 Use some kind of underlying structure!

10. What makes a
poster FAIL?

13. Text : Less is More
 Teeth are ideal for  Teeth & Life
studying life history History
because they grow  Incremental growth
incrementally, are not  Not remodeled
remodeled during an  Resistant to environmental
stress
individual’s
lifetime, and are not
highly subject to
environmental
stresses.

14. How to Use Text:
Break text up with bullets or numbers. (Hint: This
slide)
Indenting shows subordination
- Like this, see?
Avoid lengthy paragraphs that give far too much detail,
like talking about why you did what you did and
whether you dislike positivism because there is such a
thing as reality out there and it operates in a certain way
and we should be able to access that in some shape,
form, or fashion and besides it’s all from some stuffy
old dead guy thinking too hard, anyway.

15. How to Use Text:
Make sure your font colors stand out against the
background.
 Use fonts people can read!
- Titles & headings should be 40 to 70 pt.
- Body text should never be less than 14 pt.
Be consistent with colors and use them to guide the
reader.
- E.g., you could use one color for headings, another
for body text.

16. Templates for
Poster Layout

17. Left to Right, Top to Bottom Flow
Title & Authors

18. Left to Right Flow in Rows
Title & Authors
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

19. Centered Image & Peripheral Explanations
Title & Authors

20. Centered Explanation, Peripheral Images
Title & Authors

21. Sample Posters

25. Resources for Poster Design
• Apple tutorial for making a scientific poster:
http://www.apple.com/science/productivitylab/#researchposter
• “Advice on designing scientific posters” (Swarthmore
College) http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/poster
advice.htm“Do’s and Don’ts of Poster Presentation”
• “Do’s and Don’ts of Poster Presentation” (The American
Society for Cell
Biology) http://www.ascb.org/index.cfm?navid=112&id=1607
&tcode=nws3
• “Creating Effective Poster Presentations” (North Carolina State
University) http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/