There are various ways in which your research work can be shared with the academic fraternity. A highly interesting medium is poster presentation. However, for a poster to be effective, you have to be extremely judicious with your words and impactful with artwork. The presentation must be strong enough to be able to attract attention of a wide viewer base, without being too lengthy.
Start with getting familiar with the people who will view your poster. If you know what they would expect and like, it will be easier for you to get your presentation and language perfect. For an audience with technical knowledge, using complex charts and jargons is fine; whereas for people without subject matter knowledge, the presentation must be simple to comprehend.
Do not try to give too many details in the poster. Determine the main point that audience must notice and remember, and emphasize on it.
Including strong visual aspects in a poster is essential to attract the attention of audience, break the monotony of text and express your content effectively.
	Prepare the charts, tables, graphs and illustrations keeping in mind the size of the poster and color of background.
	The colors should not be too bright, as they can overpower your content and distract the reader.
	Label the graphs, images, etc. clearly and place them in a way that they balance the poster visually. Again, avoid giving complicated charts or tables in a poster.
	Two to three font styles and sizes can be used to clarify importance of content. Also, bold lines and text must be used for titles/ sub titles so that that they are visible from a distance.
After all, a picture is worth a thousand words; so when brevity is crucial, pictorial and graphical presentation becomes a strong tool.
To ensure proper arrangement of content, you can use a grid. Maintain symmetry while placing the text and insert pictures of graphs along with the text to which they are related. Grouping content is important, so that readers can make out one section from another. Most importantly, do not clutter the poster; leave about 40 percent space in the poster empty.
This page was last modified on 27 February 2015, at 17:40.