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Photo Credit: Unsplash

Thoughts Gathering

A poster is a visual aid to help people make sense of your research. It should communicate your research story quickly - in just a few minutes!  Most importantly, a poster opens up the opportunity for dialogue and conversation as you walk people through the research displayed on your poster. Here  are some tips on thoughts gathering prior to poster design. 

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Brainstorm ideas

  • Think about a story you want to tell in your poster;

  • Prepare an outline of your story.

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Identify the goal

  • What is it that you want your audience to know, feel, or believe after hearing your story?  Why is your research or your project important? 

  • What is the ONE most significant point they should remember after hearing your story? Design your poster to reinforce and support that.

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Consider your target audience

  • For a professional conference, your audience will be comfortable with scientific terminology and discipline-specific language. You can use a minimum amount of text and lots of technical details in the form of schemes, graphs, models, tables, etc.

  • For an undergraduate students symposium, your audience may not be familiar with the terminology of your research area, so you should use more plain language that anyone would understand, more images to depict technical details, and even photos of lab events and people.

  • At a career fair or outreach event, use a minimum of text, and lots of colorful photos of lab equipment, simple experimental setups, events, and people.

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Find out the required presentation format

  • What are the size requirements for your poster? Does the conference or symposium provide a template?

  • What software will you use to make your poster? (some suggestions will be presented later in this module).

  • How will your poster be presented - will you print it, or will poster be presented electronically?

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