Poster presentation

Honours Projects

Introduction into the Poster presentation

Posters - Research Day 2010/11

Research Day


School Research Day 2010

Wednesday 30 March, Richmond Building (atrium)

9:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-12:30 Poster Presentations by final year students

12:30-13:30 Lunch break

13:30-15:00 Highlights of the School’s research activities
Presentation by Careers Service
15:00-15:30 Award of Poster Prize and Concluding Remarks


Carrot: Poster Prize...

• Fisher Scientific are sponsoring the prize for the best poster

• YOU are the judges
– During the poster session, you can vote for your favourite poster
– The poster with largest number of votes wins

• The Poster Prize is awarded in the afternoon following the Careers
afternoon,
presentation


... and stick: Assessment

• The poster forms part of the assessment component of the project mark:
– 20% Performance
– 40% Assessment by supervisor
– 40% Assessment by 2nd marker

• The actual poster mark contributes 10% to each assessment
(supervisor’s and 2nd marker’s), hence 8% of the total project mark
d

• Posters are marked on the Research Day by the supervisor and the 2nd
marker (wherever possible)


Assessment criteria
• Is the title appropriate and does it highlight the subject matter?
• Is the poster divided into appropriate sections with subtitle: Abstract,
Introduction, Method, Results
Introduction Method Results, Discussion and Conclusion
Conclusion,
References?
• Does the poster explain the following in clear, jargon-free terms:
– the i tifi
th scientific problem/background t th study
bl /b k d to the t d
– how the particular experiment/study addresses the problem
– the method
– the
th experiment/study performed
i t/ t d f d
– the results obtained
– the conclusions
– evaluation or f t
l ti future research
h
• Are the font and typesize for the main text appropriate?
• Overall design:
– Does the poster exhibit visual simplicity and clarity?
– Is the poster laid out in a logical order?
– Has colour and graphics been used meaningfully and appropriately?
– Has text been used appropriately and concisely (i.e. kept to the minimum
needed)?

Assessment criteria
Excellent The poster demonstrates a thorough and comprehensive realisation and
mastery of the skill of poster presentation using a combination of visual and
textual devices to present with clarity and economy all necessary information
information.

Very Good The poster is excellent, but not outstanding, when assessed against the
above criteria. The poster demonstrates a thorough and comprehensive
realisation of the skill of poster presentation. Higher marks in this category
demonstrate greater mastery of the requirements.
Good The poster is judged to be average to very good when assessed against the
above criteria. The poster has some weaknesses in clarity, economy and
completeness. Higher marks in this category demonstrate greater realisation
of the requirements.
Satisfactory
S ti f t The
Th poster iis jjudged t b of poor quality when assessed against the above
t d d to be f lit h d i t th b
criteria. The poster demonstrates poor realisation of the requirements of the
assessment. There are major general weaknesses. Lower marks in this
category demonstrate more serious failures to satisfy the requirements.
Unsatisfactory The poster demonstrates an unacceptable and minimal understanding of the
requirements of the assessment and few of the criteria are satisfied. Lower
marks demonstrate a minimal attempt to p
p produce a p poster relating to final y
g year
research project or dissertation.


How to prepare the poster


Poster format

• The format of the posters is A2 (420x594 mm, equivalent to 4 A4 pages),
portrait or landscape

• Posters can be prepared in Powerpoint and printed by the University
printing service (1st Floor Portland Building, Park Building), for £5
– See http://www.is.port.ac.uk/printing/largeformatprinting/
• Alternatively, posters can be prepared by arranging text and graphic
printouts on cardboard

• The posters should also be submitted in electronic format (to the
supervisor)
– It is a good idea to show a draft to the supervisor for feedback
f f f


Timeline for Poster preparation

• Start early!

– The poster presentation is on 30 March

• Therefore, your poster should be ready and printed well BEFORE that
date (Monday 28 March latest)

• Check with your supervisor for possible IP (intellectual property)
problems before public display


Quick guide for posters
• Know your topic
– Seems trivial, but this is the key to a good poster
• Be selective
– You should know more about your project than you can possibly fit onto a
poster; restrict yourselves to a few points, and explain these well
• Keep it simple
– A poster is not an essay; there is plenty of opportunity to go into more
detail in the thesis
• Minimise text, use graphics
– A poster is a visual communication tool, so use clear, simple graphics to
illustrate you po s
us a e your points
• Use large font
– Remember, posters are read from a distance (18 pt minimum) – should be
readable as an A4 format printout
• Provide guidance
– The sequence of content has to be clear from the layout (e.g. columnar);
numbering the text blocks may also help
• http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/PosterHome.html

Organise the content

© Kathryn T
K th Tosney


Guide along the sequence

© Kathryn Tosney

Use large font size

© Kathryn T
K th Tosney


Use large font size

© Kathryn Tosney


Use large font size


Make use of different font size

© Kathryn Tosney


Make use of different font size


Use large graphics

© Kathryn Tosney


Use large graphics


Graphs – straight from Excel

• This is a graph straight out of Excel – it does contain the information, but
hides it under a lot of unnecessary colouring and detail
– Grey background: provides no i f
G b k d id information, di t t the attention and i ugly
ti distracts th tt ti d is l
– Grid lines: message is contained in pattern; actual values are probably not relevant
– Legend: takes up extra space – at graph’s expense
– X-axis:
X axis: axes are notoriously problematic in Excel, in this case
Excel
• labelling between tick marks
• crossing of the y-axis at –1 rather then zero

Graphs - better

• This is already better, but still looks a bit cluttered
– Axis scales: emphasis on pattern, so detail of axis values not required
– Legend: much easier to simply label the lines
– Data markers: individual data points are less relevant than pattern, no need to
highlight them


Graphs – simple and clear

Example by George Hess, NC State University
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/GoodGraphs/
p p j p p

• Finally, all unnecessary detail and distractions are removed
• The message of the graph is now immediately clear


Before – and after


Examples from last year

• The following slides show some of the posters from previous years

• They exemplify the wide variety of design options
– Portrait or landscape format
– Use of 2, 3 or 4 columns
– Background images or plain background
– Emphasis on graphics or text
– Different use of colour
– …


Two versions of the same poster

• Which version would you prefer?
y p
• Why?
• Any suggestions for further improvement of the poster?


☺ Clear structure
Very heavy on text information

☺ Interesting layout
Background and graphs overloaded

☺ Clear layout
Very heavy on text
information


☺ Plenty of graphical information (including flow diagram)
Information overload

☺ Eye catching
Background too dominant

☺ Nice images
Very heavy on text information

☺ Very clear structure
Maybe too understated

☺ Clear structure, large graphs
Any?

☺ Interesting layout,
good illustrations
Any?


☺ Clear structure, plenty of graphics
Any?

Poster template

• On Victory you will find a PowerPoint template for your poster
– The size is set to A2, but you can change layout, background, font etc. to
your liking

Finally...

• Your poster will be visited by many people, not just the assessors

• They may give you feedback on your project, your results, or their
interpretation

• Make use of these comments when you are finalising your thesis!


Poster presentation

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