1. Putting together a Poster Show Based on Colin Purrington’s website http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm Advice on designing scientific posters Purpose Audience Poster-making design Parts of an effective poster

2. Purpose To inform readers Progress Results Implications Further research Practical applications To persuade readers... that you know what you are doing!

3. Audience Posters usually aimed at experts But, know your audience’s level of sophistication –Decide which terms need defining –Using good illustrations will make your job easier  Be prepared to give oral explanations at much simpler and more complex levels

4. How people decide which posters to read Time available Interest in topic Attractiveness of poster

5. How do people read posters? 1.Scan poster title 2.Look at pictures 3.Read captions 4.Read text  Biggest, boldest objects get attention first Add eye-catching graphics Use keywords and make title text large and legible Write informative captions Tell an interesting story

6. Title = Headline Make title intriguing to draw readers in Avoid RI&A (Ridiculous Initialisms & Acronyms) that slow down readers Capitalize only first word and proper names Big enough to be read from 10' away Sans Serif type No more than two lines of type

7. Use big, strong clear images Consider a poster entirely made up of pictures and captions! Label significant parts with callouts Write informative captions Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful condition of the hand and fingers caused by compression of a major nerve where it passes over the carpal bones through a passage at the front of the wrist, alongside the flexor tendons of the hand. It may be caused by repetitive movements over a long period, or by fluid retention, and is characterized by sensations of tingling, numbness, or burning. Carpal Tunnel

8. Tell an interesting story Combine text and graphics to make it interesting Design poster so it is easy to follow the story

9. How people read text  Top to bottom  Left to right People scan, looking for familiar words and phrases Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue Possibly an ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem Madisonum dolor sit amet,consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue Never lis lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla For facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue New method for disambiguating E. Rascal 2

10. Why would you make a poster like this? People read text  Top to bottom  Left to right

11. Organizing a poster Note how lots of white space separates elements Most important Least important StartFinish Title goes here: use keywords to attract readers Subhead 1 Blah blah, blah, and blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, blah blah, Caption blah, blah, blah, and blah, Source of data blah, blah, blah

12. Poster-making Software Page layout applications: –QuarkXPress –Adobe InDesign –LaTeX Also try: –Adobe IllustratorAdobe Illustrator –CorelDRAWCorelDRAW –OmnigraffleOmnigraffle PowerPoint usable, but not as many features as the others important to change defaults

13. How much text? No more than can be read in just a few minutes

14. What size text? Text should be readable from 6' away Text size depends on width of column –Wider the column  bigger the text –BUT: hard to read really wide columns Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam no nummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore et fuegiat nulla facfacillisis at vero eros et accumansan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesant luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam no nummy, nibh euismod tincidunt laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad min. Never, ever incorporate "web" graphics without extreme caution. Most web images have 72 dots per inch of resolution, but printing at that resolution looks absolutely terrible, and the figure will be a huge turn-off to prospective viewers. And never, ever assume that your mentor has, or can find, a high-quality image to give you -- if they have anything, it is usually something pulled of the Internet. If you have access to a digital camera, use it to get a high quality photograph of your study setup or organism (e.g., your Drosophila mutant, a close-up of your Arabidopsis in flower). Memory space is cheap on a digital camera, so take 100 photographs to ensure that at least one has crisp detail, good composition, non- distracting background, etc. Sometimes to get the perfect shot you will need to seek out a microscope that has a camera attached to it. Run your best image through Photoshop to adjust contrast, image size, and sharpening. It should look professional when printed; if it does not, start over.

15. What kind of text? Roman/serif font OK for body text –Times –Palatino –Lucida Bright –Constantia – Bookman Use italics instead of underlining for emphasis Left alignment (Don't justify

16. Empty space (white space) Makes poster more readable and less overwhelming (=less boring) Use only half of your poster for text –Leave room for graphics –Leave empty space = NOTHING!

17. Layout should follow principles of document design Hierarchy –Some elements are more important than others Proximity –Keep related items near one another Alignment Note extra space between items

18. Hierarchy Layout: Hierarchy Organize ideas in logical order Leave plenty of white space Provide navigational aids –Use subheads before each section –Avoid generic subheads whenever possible Introduction Methodology Conclusions Why study Oxymorons? Giggles-per-hour test apparatus Toast is 27x more likely to land butter-side-down

19. Layout: Proximity Keep related elements together a)Subhead goes right under head b)Illustrations go next to text c)Captions go right under illustrations d)Illustrations discussed in text 3. Side mirrors Impact Testing 1991–2003 Fig 4. Replacing side mirrors resulted in an increase in accidents Our results clearly indicated that Leporidae feet had a negative effect on operators, distracting them while they were operating heavy equipment. After the loss (Fig. 4) of a third test vehicle, we were denied permission to continue our experiments and a number of imprecations were hurled at the observers. Over the course of the experiments, we removed the side mirrors from large equipment and replaced them with hanging “lucky” rabbits feet.

20. Alignment Layout: Alignment Line up text and images to help readers understand process Use flush left alignment for text

21. Alignment with Powerpoint HOW TO Align a group of objects 1.Hold down SHIFT, and then click the objects that you want to align 2.Choose the alignment you want and clickBackgroundMethodologyImplications

22. Poor layout The Panama Canal is about 50 miles (80 km) long, across the Isthmus of Panama, that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its construction, begun by the French under Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1881, was abandoned in 1889 and was completed by the U.S. between 1904 and 1914. Control of the canal remained with the U.S. until 1999, when it was ceded to Panama. Plans call for widening the canal to accommodate modern freighters. Profile Map of the Panama Canal 1997 Map of Panama, showing route of the Panama Canal

23. Better Layout The Panama Canal The Panama Canal is about 50 miles (80 km) long, across the Isthmus of Panama, and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Construction, begun by the French under Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1881, was abandoned in 1889 and was completed by the U.S. between 1904 and 1914. Control of the canal remained with the U.S. until 1999, when it was ceded to Panama. Plans call for widening the canal to accommodate modern freighters. Profile Map of the Panama Canal 1997 Map of Panama, showing route of the Panama Canal

24. Parts of a poster ✔ Title –Short, simple, catchy explanation –Follow with names of researchers  Abstract –Unnecessary on a poster –Waste of space

25. Parts of a poster ✔ Introduction/background –Give bare minimum needed to understand your hypothesis/problem statement ✔ Design: Explain reasoning Why design was chosen Why design has good chance of success ✔ Experiment: Materials and methods Describe experiment Great place to use graphics Flow chart Photographs Diagrams

26. Parts of a poster ✔ Results –Did experiment work? –What happened? –Show and discuss data collected ✔ Conclusions –Was hypothesis supported? –What happens next?

27. Parts of a poster ✔ Literature citations –List only articles you actually used –Follow standard citation style for your field ✔ Acknowledgments –List people who helped you –List sources of funding ✔ Further information –How can people reach you if they have questions, comments, job offers, Nobel Prizes, etc. for you Steven B. Zwickel Faculty Associate M1036 Engineering Centers Building 1550 Engineering Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (608) 262-5172 zwickel@engr.wisc.edu Tape an envelope to your poster for handouts or business cards

28. The End Just one more thing Prepare a short oral explanation of your project using the poster as a visual aid. Don’t forget your spiel: Prepare a short oral explanation of your project using the poster as a visual aid. Keep it simple—you may have to repeat it 100 times! Make it adaptable to different audiences