Research Poster Presentation

Resize according to guidelines

If your poster has to be a specific size, make sure to do this as your first step so all content pieces you add are scaled appropriately. If you resize at the outset, that will save you the trouble of having to reformat your content down the road. There are a number of programs in which you can design your poster, but PowerPoint and Google Slides tend to be two of the most popular. If you use any of the templates found in the resources box on this page, you should be able to download the template pre-sized to common conference dimensions.

How to resize in PowerPoint

Open a blank presentation and navigate to the Design tab. In the Slide Size dropdown menu, select Custom Slide Size, enter the appropriate dimensions, and click OK.

How to resize in Google Slides

Open a blank presentation. From the File menu, select Page Setup and then select Custom in the Page Setup dropdown menu. Enter the appropriate dimensions and click OK.

Make it intuitive

The layout of your research poster should be easy for visitors to follow, especially if it will remain up while you're not there to present. A common layout is columns that can be read from the top of the poster to the bottom and from left to right.

Build in plenty of white space

For optimum readability, include plenty of white, or empty, space between elements. White space simply refers to areas without content - no text, no images. 

Use headings

Just as the layout of your poster contributes to its readability, so too does the use of headings. Poster headings often look similar to the sections of a research paper (e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion, etc.), and their arrangement on your poster should make sense to audiences. For example, Introduction should always come before Results. The logical progression of each section to the one that follows will help your audiences navigate your content.

Pare your text down

Your poster should not be overly text heavy. The amount of text you use will depend, in part, on how the conference or your professor structures the poster session. If you be will present at all times your poster is hanging, you can use less text because you will be available to explain your research to visitors. If, on the other hand, your poster will remain hanging before or after the session when you will not be present, you may need to include more text to make sure your poster is descriptive enough that visitors can follow along. 

Break your text up

If you do need to include a lot of text, find ways to break it up visually. Can you break up a big chunk of text into a couple paragraphs? If so, do it! Can you distill a paragraph to a bulleted list of the most essential elements? If so, even better! Is there an image that would go well between your Methods and Results sections? If so, add it!