Poster Design & Layout

Once I have decided what to include, how do I actually design my poster?

The effectiveness of your poster depends on how quickly and easily your audience can read and interpret it, so it's best to make your poster visually striking. You only have a few seconds to grab attention as people wander past your poster; make the most of those seconds!

How are posters usually laid out?

In general, people expect information to flow left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Viewers are best able to absorb information from a poster with several columns that progress from left to right.

Even within these columns, however, there are certain places where viewers' eyes naturally fall first and where they expect to find information.

Imagine your poster with an upside-down triangle centered from the top to the bottom. It is in this general area that people tend to look first and is often used for the title, results, and conclusions. Secondary and supporting information tend to fall to the sides, with the lower right having the more minor information such as acknowledgements, references, and personal contact information.

1. Main Focus Area
   Location of research fundamentals: Title, Abstract, Results, Conclusion
2. Secondary Emphasis
   Location of important info: Intro, Results, Summary
3. Supporting Area
   Location of supporting info: Methods, Discussion
4. Final Info Area
   Location of supplemental info: References, Acknowledgments, Personal information

How can I make my poster easy to read?

How can I make my poster easy to read?

There are a number of tricks you can use to aid readability and emphasize crucial ideas. In general:

• Use a large font. Don't make the text smaller in order to fit more onto the poster. Make sure that 95% of the text on your poster can be read from 4 feet away. If viewers can't make out the text from a distance, they're likely to walk away.
• Choose a sans-serif font like Helvetica or Verdana, not a serif font, like Times New Roman. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read because they don't have extraneous hooks on every letter. Here is an example of a sans-serif and a serif font:
• Once you have chosen a font, be consistent in its usage. Use just one font.
• Don't single-space your text. Use 1.5- or double-spacing to make the text easier to read.

For main points:

• Use bold, italicized, or colored fonts, or enclose text in boxes. Save this kind of emphasis for only a few key words, phrases, or sentences. Too much emphasized text makes it harder, not easier, to locate important points.
• AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, WHICH CAN BE HARD TO READ.
• Make your main points easy to find by setting them off with bullets or numbers.