Posters

NOSC 2011 General Guidelines on Posters

This year, poster presentations will be featured in both poster sessions and poster symposia. The following guidelines address the expectations of posters presented in these formats.

Poster Size

We will provide poster boards that are 8 feet wide and 4 feet high. You are encouraged to make full use of this space, but posters should not exceed these dimensions. This applies to all posters, whether presented during poster sessions or poster symposia.

Poster Sessions

• General
  There will be two poster sessions, each lasting two hours. Each poster will be assigned to one session.
• Grouping posters
  Posters will be grouped by topic. You will be notified regarding your poster's number and topic grouping. Hang your poster at your poster number.
• Hanging and dismounting posters
  Mount your posters in the Big Ten C room, between 9 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on the day of your poster session. Dismount at the end of your session. We will provide tacks to display your posters.
• Poster presentation
  At least one presenter should be standing by your poster at all times during its two-hour poster session, ready to answer questions and discuss the work with conference attendees.

Poster Symposia

• General
  There will be six poster symposia, each lasting 75 minutes.
• Organizing poster symposia
  Each poster symposium includes 6-9 posters organized around a common topic, but representing a variety of studies, projects, and perspectives. You will be notified regarding the date, time, and topic of your poster symposium session.
• Hanging and dismounting posters
  Mount your posters in the poster symposia exhibition area outside the Michigamme room, a few minutes prior to the start of your session. Dismount at the end of your session. We will provide tacks to display your posters.
• Poster presentation
  Posters will be presented during the first 30 minutes of each poster symposium. At least one presenter should be standing by your poster during this time, ready to answer questions and discuss the work with conference attendees. After 30 minutes, a session convener will call the symposium portion to order in the Michigamme room and facilitate an interactive discussion between the attendees and a panel comprised of the primary presenters of the posters.

 

Tips for Creating Good Posters

The following are some general suggestions for creating good posters gathered from online sources and informed by best design practices. These are not intended or offered as requirements.

Layout and Design

• Make text size large and readable from at least three feet. Body text should be 24-36 point; use 48-72 point text for headings. Text size within figures should also be large.
• Use a serif font (e.g., Times) for most body text, which is easier to read. Use a sans-serif font (e.g., Helvetica, Arial) for titles and headings to make them stand out.
• Make the objective of your poster easy to find by using bold face or other techniques.
• Use headings to cluster information and convey main points; this makes it easy to scan and find key information.
• Keep the sequence well ordered and obvious. Use a column format to help readers navigate through your poster.
• Your poster should have a good visual balance of figures and text, separated by white space; this will also help define the flow of information.
• Use a light color background and dark color lettering for contrast.
• Use color sparingly. Color can be used to attract attention, organize, and emphasize certain content. Generally, 2-3 colors are sufficient. More colors may confuse viewers.
• Use high resolution images; low resolution images will appear fuzzy, especially when printed on a large poster format.

Content

• Provide a short, catchy, and understandable title to attract an audience to your poster.
• Include the project researchers’ names and affiliations.
• Include your university logo. Be sure to follow any rules or graphic standards that your university has for using the logo.
• If your project is funded, acknowledge the funding agencies. Be sure to follow any rules or graphic standards that your funder may have.
• Provide a brief and interesting summary of your research and state your main point(s) and conclusion(s) clearly and succinctly.
• Sentences should be short and easy to read. Avoid long sentences.
• Omit any content that is not essential; details distract from the main point. If viewers want more information they will ask.
• Avoid jargon wherever possible and identify or define terms that may be unfamiliar to the audience.
• Relate all visuals and text to the key points and conclusions.
• Make sure that you have proper permissions for use of images and illustrations and include the proper citations. Include your university’s copyright statement at the bottom of your poster.
• Proofread several times for typos and grammatical errors.