Science:Science Writing Resources/Communicating in the STEM Disciplines/Poster Presentations/Design

Design and General Layout

Research posters often have the same sections as research articles: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. The introduction introduces the topic and the study, the methods section describes the methods used in the study, the results include data representations (e.g., a graph or a table) and a short description of the results, and the discussion section provides an interpretation of the results. Additionally, posters may include additional sections like an “acknowledgements” section or a “funding sources” section.

While the sections of a poster resemble those of a research paper, not all the information from the paper should be included. Posters summarize only the main points, usually in no more than 1,000 words.

The purpose of your poster is to provide a visual representation of your research paper. Here are some suggestions for enhancing the visual quality of your poster:

• Put the most important information (i.e. the results) in the centre of the poster.
• Use text boxes and shapes to organize the content on your poster.
• Use creativity when designing a poster to make it eye-catching, but keep in mind that often simplicity is best.
• Make sure poster elements are aligned both horizontally and vertically.
• If you want your audience to compare two things, put them next to each other on your poster.
• Use white space between text boxes and images to make your poster easier to follow and more visually appealing.
• Use a mixture of text and images.